Europe's Separatist States: Every Place Trying to Escape - TLDR News

Europe is full of unhappy regions, places trying to escape from their own country. So in this video we run through all the regions which have major separatist movements, areas which would rather rule themselves than continue with the status quo.

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[TLDRnewsEU]

CORRECTIONS:
(1) At 5:15 we say 'only a slight majority [in Bornholm] want independence', when we meant minority
(2) At 6:30 was say that 'more than 8 million people claimed Silesian identity in the 2011 Polish census', when we meant 800, 000
Both of these were typos on the writer's part (Zac/me, the guy writing this comment), so apologies for that; we'll try our best to improve in the future

[maximet.]

How could you miss Corsica, who actually became the first European modern democracy during its short lived independence, and which is still to this day so riddled with a violent independentist movement that it has the highest murder rate per capita in Europe (source : BBC news). 3 out of our 4 representatives at the national legislative chamber of France are from the independentist party. We have our own assembly, a separate tax status from the rest of France, and even Macron is now adopting a politic in favor of more autonomy in order to quench Corsican’s thirst for independence. I love you guys, but that’s a pretty big miss.

[Kalemnos]

You forgot Corsica. There is an independantist party in the island, even though they are far to be the majority. There was also some sort different liberations armies which used to be in competition, and perhaps related with mafias. But the attempt on Yvan Colonna' life (The murderer of prefet Erignac) in prison turned into violent reactions in the island.

[Nathan-lsxt]

Uh, no Republika Srpska?

Things are getting quite heated here in the Balkans over this issue.

[Moeller]

I think TLDR have fallen victim to Danish humor. Faroe islands definitely have a real independence movement - and they will definitely achieve it in our lifetime. But a lot of Danish islands and region in Denmark "proper" have joke independence movements. Vendsyssel (the northern part of the Jutland peninsula) had a big joke independence party back in the 90's. The funny part is, that you actually missed the biggest real separatist movement in all of Danish territory: Greenland, which is a very active and extremely interesting situation, that deserves an episode of its own

[idraote]

You entirely forgot Corsica and Sardinia. Both regions have had a serious independence movement for decades.
While the situation in Sardinia appears to be comparatively calm - with many Sardinians being proud of their region but also of their "Italianness" - situation in Corsica is more unstable.

Sicilian indipendence has never been a thing, at least not in the last few decades.
Sicily has no viable economy and no competent administrators, it wouldn't survive without money from Rome. Sicilians know that all too well.
An independence movement that is fairly in fashion is for the former Borbonic kingdom (the South of Italy, to make it simple) to be reinstated. Many people say that the kingdom was economically viable and that it became poor because of the centralised government in Rome robbing them of money and resources.

[tobiaswilhelmi]

I can't wrap my mind about excluding nearly all of the Balkans (Bosnia, Kosovo) and even Transnistria, but mentioning Bavaria, which isn't even a thing.

[ILCMango]

A couple of comments about the Danish separatists. The Danish government and public are not against Faroese independence, but the loss of Danish government fund would devastate the Faroese economy. There is an idea that the Faroes should have an economy that can survive independence, before it is declared. Also, Bornholm independence movements only exits on online lists of independence movements. To say that a majority of Bornholmers wants independence is plainly wrong. There is a Bornholm independence party, but they could not even gain a single seat in the local government. I would not even call Bornholm independence a joke, because not enough people would get it.

Edit: I think the reason that he said majority must have been a script mistakes, because he says it later, when he clearly ment a minority. But i would not expect such clear mistakes to become published.

[HAKX]

Feel like if you're gonna use a map with Serbia owning Kosovo it's pretty ironic not to include them as a separatist movement.

[davochinomalo]

I feel like there should've been mention of Veneto, Sardinia, and maybe even Corsica.

[timteichmann]

Honestly the South Schleswig Separatist/autonomy movement (in North Germany) is, even though still unlikely, much more likely to gain independence than Bavaria

[jurian]

There are also movements in "Friesland" (Frisia) in The Netherlands, "Bretagne" (Brittany) in France.
But the one I mostly missed was "Corse" (Corsica) in France. They have been fighting for independence for quite some time.
Lastly: I don't really think that Bavaria succession is realistic. What is more realistic: The region of Franken within Bavaria would like to not be part of Bavaria anymore.

[Okami]

You missed Sardinia. The Sardinian Action Party, Partito Sardo d'Azione, or PSdA, has the largest number of members in Sardinia's regional council. Sardinian nationalist parties in general gained nearly a third of the vote in 2019

[LaughingManX]

Most Serbs in Republika Srpska and Croats in Herzegovina both want outright session from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and, to either join Serbia (or Croatia) respectively, or to become completely independent states.

Serbs in BiH are nearing the de-facto realization of this goal, given President Milorad Dodik, the Alliance of Independent Social Democrats, and their parliamentary allies successive efforts to withdraw the territory of Republika Srpska from the Judiciary, Tax Administration, and Military of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s central government.

Unlike other independence movements, these efforts in the Balkans not only have a real chance of success, but are also likely to produce “explosive” consequences. I don’t know how you all missed the elephant in the room.

[goranmekota]

Including Istria (no real separatism here), but not Republika Srpska (BiH) with open and declared separatist goals by present leaders is an interesting choice :D

[eerokivisto]

There's also Åland, which is an autonomous region of Finland. The separatists Ålands Framtid (Future of Åland) was founded in 2001 and at most has held three seats in the 30-seat regional parliament.

[adamssak]

Silesia, believe it or not, does not want to break away from Poland.

[xArneH]

Commenting on the Belgium situation, one of the parties you mention in the video is called 'Vlaams Belang' and since 1989 there's been a cordon sanitaire established, meaning that no party is ''allowed'' to make a parliament with them, in other words they would need to have a majority themselves to rule. Secondly while N-VA used to have a really outspoken separatist stance it has severely diminished over the years. Flanders separating from Belgium is very unlikely to happen as it stands. Interesting video nonetheless!

[karlfranzemperorofmandefil]

Putting Bavaria here is a bit odd, as no major party wants secession, it's a tiny splinter movement that's mostly voted as a means of protest

[osz]

Can't believe you didn't even mention Brittany, which has a very strong Celtic culture and own language and had a period of strong terrorist action with the Breton Liberation Front