Ingenuity in international politics strategy

Historically, Catalans have been very sensitive to other stateless nations,  minor regions oppressed by powerful states and any other group of people with political, social or cultural problems.

Thus, we have found ourselves joining campaigns in favor of minority languages, dismembered nations at the verge of being assimilated by the dominant nation in their state, or small, powerless minorities caught within an unfriendly state. The consequence, besides the traditional feeling of impotence, is that the Catalan case ends up being treated at the same level as the other ones, when actually and thankfully, we are far from being a minority as it is usually understood in Europe:  as an independent state Catalonia would be bigger than many of current EU member states, with a comparetively solid economy and with a long experience  in worlwide political relations.

There is nothing bad about helping those who need help and I believe we always have to give a hand to just causes. But we should ponder if this strategy does any good to our project of creating our own state within the EU.   Current EU member states want as less troubles as possible, and this specially applies when it comes to  stateless nations and minorities across Europe.

If we ever want Europe to accept a new case of internal enlargement we have to positionate ourselves as a unique case that deserves to be granted its right to self determination. Contrarily, as long as we are depicted in Europe’s mind as a group of regionalists, we are doomed to share the same luck as peoples like Corsica, Bretagne or Galicia whose chances  -an even wishes- to become an independent state are remote.

As I see it, Scotland realised about this problem many years ago, and his attitude may seem selfish, but it is completely understandable: the SNP knows very well that if Scotland wants to have its own state they need to act and to be considered as such. And that begins by marketing themselves away from regionalists or minorities which only aspire to a bit of autonomy.