Independence movements are riding a wave of optimism in Europe

As president of the European Free Alliance, I have never felt more optimistic about the potential success of independence parties in Europe.

François Alfonsi is the President of the European Free Alliance. A Corsican nationalist since the 1970s, he is mayor of Osani and a member of the Party of the Corsican Nation.

The debate led by the Scots and the Catalans, closely followed by the forty parties in the EFA, will rebound on the European stage, before the European Parliament, before the new European Commission and throughout the press in Europe and beyond. Scotland and Catalonia do not only pose a problem of democracy in the United Kingdom and Spain. All Europe is concerned, and all Europe must accept the democratic rights of peoples, starting with the right to self-determination.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Catalan self-determination referendum http://www.europeansources.info/record/catalan-self-determination-referendum/

ESO: Scottish independence referendum, 2014 http://www.europeansources.info/record/scottish-independence-referendum-2014/

Website: European Free Alliance http://e-f-a.org/home/

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