Lo Scottish National Party tra referendum e governo

Il 18 settembre 2014 gli elettori scozzesi hanno rigettato la proposta di separazione della Scozia dal Regno Unito con un referendum giunto dopo una lunga storia di lotta per l’indipendenza. Nel XX e XXI secolo il protagonista di questa storia è lo Scottish National Party (SNP) che dal 1934, con alterne fortune, rappresenta l’anima politica del nazionalismo scozzese. Come molti altri partiti nazionalisti presenti nelle cd “Nazioni senza Stato” lo SNP e passato da molte stagioni e subito profondi cambiamenti e mostra caratteristiche e dinamiche abbastanza simili a quelle di altri partiti neonazionalisti di governo (PQ e CiU). In questo capitolo, dopo una breve discussione sull’evoluzione del SNP, ci soffermeremo sulla dinamica indipendentista che ha trovato la sua ultima espressione nel Referendum da poco svoltosi.

The Scottish National Party between Referendum and Government. In this chapter, after a brief discussion about the evolution of the SNP, we will focus on the dynamics of independence that finds its last expression in the recently held Referendum. The Scottish dynamics manifests a feature that is common to many other neo-nationalist movements: in their rising they tend to assume increasingly pragmatic features that reinforce them electorally, but they weaken their "ideological" compactness. This does not mean that they don’t pursue their ultimate goal, but they put this end more on pragmatic grounds than on ideological or emotional appeal. The long march of Scottish nationalism has led this party to wear many different costumes: minority nationalist party, the nationalist movement postindustrial opinion party, the ruling party, but it has been able to maintain reasonably solid its main orientation. It seems to be able to produce a hard complex of identity aim and political pragmatism. The outcome of its march toward independence will be marked by the ability to bond more and more these two souls and to convince the Scots that independence is actually convenient. But in this game the SNP is not alone and, as the referendum campaign showed, the ability of the opponents to increase the costs of transition is a decisive variable.