The Political Consequences of the End of Nationalist Violence

• In Event: Ethno-National Conflict

Abstract

The last decade has seen the disappearance of nationalist political violence in two minority nations of Western Europe: the (Spanish) Basque Country and Corsica. Considering the importance of violence in the politics of these two communities (since 1959 in the Basque Country and 1976 in Corsica), the 2014 announcement by the Front de libération nationale corse of its ‘de-militarization’ and the dissolution of Euskadi Ta Askatasuna in 2018 represented potential critical junctures in the political development of both the Basque Country and Corsica. What, then, was the impact of the end of political violence in the two communities and why did this new ‘civil peace’ play out differently across the two cases, if it did? This article traces the process of political development in the Basque Country and Corsica through and after the end of violence. It shows that such end led to a strengthening of nationalism and a surge of claims for increased autonomy much more in Corsica than in the Basque Country. Then, the paper looks for an explanation for this divergence. It focuses on four differences between the two cases that could logically account for the different outcomes: constitutional status (the Basque Country has legislative and fiscal autonomy whereas Corsica has neither); the configuration of political power within each community (Basque nationalists dominate Basque politics whereas non-nationalist forces controlled Corsica until recently); the ideological positioning of the nationalist parties (more divergent in the Basque Country than in Corsica); and the levels of past violence (high in the Basque Country and low in Corsica). All these factors make post-violence alliances between nationalist forces easier in Corsica than the Basque Country.

Authors

• Stephanie Kerr, University of lethbridge

• André Lecours, University of Ottawa