Separatist Movements on the Rise Across Europe

Keep your Nobel, we want our borders back

Historic world port and fashionista capital, Antwerp has always lived on the crest of the wave. Now, a separatist party heading into municipal elections Sunday wants to use the city as a base for breaking away from Belgium — putting it at the forefront of a European breakaway trend just as the EU celebrates winning the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering continental unity.

Moves toward separatism have been getting a bigger these past months as the economic crisis pushes people faster toward stark choices on nationhood and their future. It is no different in Spain's Catalonia, another wealthy region grousing that it has to pay for others in its crisis-hit country.

Comments

[Sevo]

Belgium is not a country; it's an argument that's been going on long enough that it got a flag.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

Belgium is recognized by FIFA. That's all that matters.

That was a sparse article. If you're gonna do something like that don't just focus on a couple of examples. Italy has the Northern League. In fact, Italy as a whole, it can be argued, never really got comfortable with the whole consolidation under a nation-state concept.

[Jerry on the road]

Flanders, Lombardia, Catalonia are all paying for the rest of the hick regions in their respective countries. No wonder they want to become independent.

[Rufus J. Firefly]

I don't now about the other countries but Italy is not so cut and dry. Southern Italy - Rome and Naples in particular - was extremely wealthy until the Piemontese (the unificators of Italy) imposed rules and laws that didn't really jive with the south. It led to what we see with the Mezzogiorno today.

Up until the 17th century, Italy (or at least its parts that made up "Italy") was the most prosperous nation in Europe. Unification was a complete mess. So I'm not so sure Lombardia has a legit beef (even though the North does indeed subsidize the South) given their own part in that history.