Understanding the Resurgence of Regional Nationalism in Europe: An Exploration Focused on Poor Regions
Overall Goal
Since the mid-2010s, the functioning of established democracies has been disrupted in many countries, including those once considered the most mature and stable. “Populism” has been the catch-all term by which this phenomenon has often been assessed—particularly since the 2010s—as ruling parties and their conventional modes of expression have declined: Brexit in the United Kingdom, the Trump presidency in the United States, and the rise of movements labeled as such on the right in continental Europe—both in the east (led by Hungary and Poland) and in the west, with France notably participating through the National Rally. The same term has also been applied to the left, during the rise of Podemos in Spain and, even more so, of Syriza in Greece, or in the context of movements that are more difficult to categorize, such as the Five Star Movement in Italy.
The literature—which has gained international significance and is available in French—that these phenomena have inspired has largely focused on a relatively conventional study of national politics at the level of the states in question. This research aims to investigate, in an original way, a neglected dimension of this restructuring by taking into account the territorial variations of this process of challenging the foundations of democratic political systems, as observed at the European level. Indeed, in several parts of the continent, we are witnessing a resurgence of a phenomenon labeled in a variety of ways in the
literature and which we refer to here as regional nationalism. It refers to the existence of movements that, originating from regions within a given nation-state, challenge that state by advancing cultural, economic, and political-administrative demands that take the form of calls for greater autonomy or even
demands for independence. These actors constitute a clearly distinct political group.
This phenomenon, in and of itself, is not new, as it first appeared in Europe in the late 19th century. However, in terms of intensity, it has not been constant: it was prominent in the prewar period, then experienced widespread popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, it subsequently tended to decline, persisting only in a limited number of regions where it was sometimes violent (notably in the Basque Country or Northern Ireland), and manifesting itself there, more often than not, only through minority or even marginal movements. Now, however, a whole series of states are facing a visible resurgence of this phenomenon, sometimes manifested in the streets and especially at the ballot box, which could go so far as to challenge long-standing national units (in the United Kingdom, Scotland through the rise of the Scottish National Party, and in Spain by Catalonia through the radicalization of the moderate nationalist movement formerly represented by Convergencia i Unió). Although it has not reached such intensity, France itself—not only in its overseas territories but also in metropolitan France—has not been spared, to the point that this trend has even recently been echoed in the national press.
We propose to conduct this study—as part of the exploratory project presented here and for the substantive reasons described in the second section—by focusing on two main regional cases: Corsica and Sardinia. These two regional cases have the advantage of being familiar to us, since we studied there, long ago, the processes of state-national integration between the late 19th and early 20th centuries—in short, the “Francization” of Corsica and the “Italianization” of Sardinia [Roux 2014]. However, the context these islands represent today has since undergone a radical transformation: regional nationalism, which was then a minority or even marginal force [Roux 2006, 2011], has, contrary to expectations, become the majority and a governing force. How can we understand such a reversal in these territories? What lessons can be drawn—beyond these specific, deliberately chosen cases—regarding the ongoing restructuring of democratic systems?
Topics and Questions Covered
As a project in the field of political science, this study lies at the intersection of several active, foundational, and complementary branches of the discipline that analyze the functioning and transformations of democracies: the branch of nationalism, which also includes a territorial component relating to decentralization processes; the field of political parties
; the field of social mobilizations and movements, including issues of political violence; and, finally, the field of citizens’ political attitudes and behaviors, with a focus on elections. The project presented here claims a twofold originality that allows it to go beyond the existing literature in several key areas of
.
His primary goal is to understand the resurgence of a phenomenon that appeared to have fallen into relative disuse. We hypothesize that this process can be understood within the context of the erosion of representative democracies—with governing parties at the forefront—a phenomenon in which it plays a part. In the cases that
interest us, two primary reasons justify our selection of cases (limited to two to ensure they remain manageable within the timeframe of a relatively short project): although they have received little attention in the literature, they nevertheless illustrate the resurgence of regional nationalism in Europe. Once consistently part of the regional opposition to regional executive bodies
that had long been controlled by the Republican Right, Corsican nationalist parties experienced a rise in electoral strength, securing a strong relative majority and gaining control of the Executive Council in 2015, a resounding historic victory in 2017, and a success centered on the autonomist party Femu a
Corsica in 2021. In Sardinia, the historic autonomist party (the Partito Sardo d’Azione), which had been powerful on the eve of fascism, had become largely marginal in the postwar period in a region long controlled by the former Christian Democracy and then, successively, starting in the 1990s, by the major center-left and center-right coalitions led, respectively, by the Democratic Party and Forza Italia: yet this autonomist party was able to lead a coalition that brought it to power in the regional government in 2019. To date, the two political leaders of these islands—Gilles Simeoni, President of the Executive Council of Corsica, and Christian Solinas, President of the Regional Council of Sardinia—belong to regional nationalist parties. This research will thus help fill a structural empirical gap in the literature.
This initial contribution supports a second distinctive feature that stems from a specific approach to site selection. Within an international body of literature that is generally limited in scope (and even scarcer in France), research has focused on a limited number of enduring and prominent cases that shared the comm
e of originating in prosperous European regions [Paquin 2001, Keating 2001, Aguilera de Prat 2002, Duerr 2015, Caron 2016, Cetrà 2019]: typically, those in Scotland, the Basque Country, Catalonia, Belgian Flanders, and Northern Italy—weary of contributing to national solidarity—drew attention because they could claim,
, forms of autonomy or independence that might appear economically viable and foster a “nationalism of the rich ” [Dalle Mulle 2018]. With Corsica and Sardinia, our strategy here is the opposite: we are dealing with two regions where a movement of protest is reemerging from poor regions, largely dependent on public support provided by the state they are challenging—and which might seem to have more to lose than to gain by distancing themselves from it. How can we make sense of this paradox? This astonishment is further heightened by another surprise that provides even stronger grounds for focusing on these two island regions: Corsica, which has had special status since 1982, saw its powers strengthened and consolidated within the Collectivité de Corse, newly established in 2018. Sardinia, a region with special status since 1948, has also seen some of its prerogatives strengthened through the federally inspired reform of 2001. How can we understand that a contestation—
, autonomist, or separatist—is intensifying even as the mechanisms of decentralization, intended to address historic regionalist demands, have been expanded? In other words, why are regions that are both more dependent and more decentralized than others becoming the site of such territorial protest?
It is clear that our exploration is thus poised to offer a substantial critical contribution to the literature.
In summary, the project therefore aims to understand unexpected movements that resurface in areas where one would least expect them, to assess whether they bring about the change they claim to, and, in this way, to grasp how democracies also change through local dynamics and not just through the vicissitudes of national politics.
Methodology and Approach
The approach is based on two core pillars, each consisting of a deliverable that sets a fundamental objective, which is broken down into sub-objectives:
- Deliverable 1: Contexts. The unprecedented strength of regional nationalist mobilization in our field sites raises questions about its dynamics: a phenomenon with deep-rooted origins but generally weak over the long term and vigorous in recent years requires, first (Sub-deliverable 1.1), tracing the cyclical dynamics of the process over the long term in order to analyze its explanatory factors and, second (Sub-deliverable 1.2), situating the context of institutional accommodation (the historical process of decentralization). This point is important because it allows us to assess the extent to which these demands represent innovation or, conversely, the “recycling” of older demands. This work will be conducted on the basis of targeted on-site documentary and archival research—since the dissemination of works related to these regions is largely concentrated locally—the reconstruction of the normative framework and an
s its evolution, and interviews with key actors embodying state-region relations in order to assess, beyond the legal framework, the problematic issues between these two levels; - Deliverable 2: Mobilization. In this area, the goal is to identify and characterize the ideological content (Sub-deliverable 2.1) that has emerged in the recent context, focusing on three key dimensions in the discourse of this political family (culture, economy, politics) through the collection of election manifestos, press articles
, and interviews with activists from the organizations in question. It seems particularly important here to situate mobilization strategies within distinct arenas (parties, movements, associations, unions, etc.). This research task offers a potential point of originality: that of
assessing the extent to which, in the context of an environmental crisis that has now become structural, the actors in question have been likely to develop an “eco-nationalist” ” [Margules 2021] or “green” nationalism [Posocco & Watson 2022] that allows them to combine regionalist discourse with the cause
of environmental protection, in order to understand how these actors shape, in their own way, the issues related to the current climate crisis and its consequences. From this perspective, island communities possess unique ecosystems that require special protection but which, in the Mediterranean, are being undermined by excessive tourist traffic and the maintenance or establishment of military infrastructure; they thus constitute particularly relevant case studies. Through the territorial shift at work here, the possibility emerges of broadening our understanding of current environmental mobilizations beyond established environmentalist groups. This may lay the groundwork for future exploration of public action in this area. At the same time, this deliverable will include a second component (sub-deliverable 2.2) focusing on the electoral performance of the “
” and its institutional integration, in order to understand, on the one hand, the sources of public support—based on an analysis of available survey data—and, on the other hand, how these actors behave once they become elected officials implementing a policy, as opposed to opponents who criticize it. This will provide an opportunity for a preliminary exploration of the types of measures prioritized; this exploration will help inform further discussion on the relevance of a subsequent systematic analysis of territorial governance and
, narrowed as needed to specific sectors such as the environment.
The implementation schedule, spanning 18 months from mid-2024 to the end of 2025, will follow the sequence of deliverables by first conducting in-depth research focused on gathering various types of documentation (national archives related to regional cases—hence the inclusion of fieldwork in the capitals, Paris and Rome—and regional documentation from university libraries and local institutions (the Corsican Assembly, the Regional Council of Sardinia), all of which will be cross-referenced with the refinement of the literature review (so as to place the regional cases in perspective with other European cases in order to understand their similarities and specific characteristics). This first stage (months 1–7) will enable the precise identification of the questions that will inform the “
” series of interviews (conducted during months 8–14) with key stakeholders (leaders and activists of the organizations). The final phase, concluding the exploratory project (months 15–18), will involve drafting and disseminating the initial findings, in accordance with disciplinary practice, first in the form of presentations at international
and national conferences, and subsequently as articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Fundamentally, our ambition is to both break the academic silence at the national level and contribute to international research.
Impact and Potential Consequences
The deliverables previously outlined as part of the methodology and timeline described above are expected to yield two types of scientific results: a novel empirical contribution on largely neglected cases; an innovative interpretation of a “nationalism of the poor” that is too often overlooked; and a thought-provoking exploration of the links between nationalism and environmentalism.
Given the originality of these cases and the critical significance they are likely to have, we are convinced that they are well-suited to laying the groundwork—under the best possible conditions—for a more ambitious research project that could be funded first through an ANR grant and subsequently through a Horizon
Europe-type project. Consolidating the state of the art, conducting in situ fieldwork, and publishing a series of initial findings will lend credibility to such a proposal, which will then entail expanding—within a more structured organizational framework—the range of cases studied and enriching the collaborative network necessary for such a project
. This project, which falls within one of the laboratory’s major research areas (“Political Territories”) and is likely to have strong links with the “Environment” research area, is conceived—through a return to previous field sites—as a prelude to a structural reorientation of our research agenda for the coming years.
The project’s expansion will require the identification of a broader range of European cases with comparable characteristics (economic weakness, the presence of decentralization mechanisms), and its scope will be supported by the formation of a research team that includes young local researchers and has an international focus.