On the 3rd anniversary of the formal withdrawal of the UK from the EU our joint coordinators, Nina Jetter and Andrea Pisauro, were invited to speak at the rally organised by Time for Scotland in Edinburgh.
We hope Scots appreciated our message of European solidarity!
Please sign our open letter to EU leaders to ask to welcome an independent Scotland in the EU: https://europeforscotland.com/open-letter
European friends,
We’re Andrea from Italy and Nina from Germany and we’re here on behalf of more than 15,000 Europeans who have chosen to support our campaign Europe for Scotland.
Europe for Scotland asks the EU to make clear that WE Europeans would love to welcome Scots back in our European family.
To name just a few Europeans that are friends of Scotland. Our open letter was signed by famous writers. Like Elena Ferrante from Italy, Daniel Kehlmann from Germany, Colm Toibin from Ireland.
Europe for Scotland also includes some great English people who support Scotland’s right to choose its own future. Like Ian McEwan, Brian Eno, Neil Gaiman.
And let us also name our friends at Another Europe is Possible, who campaigned against Brexit and for a better Europe and who asked me to express here their support for Scotland’s right to choose.
And of course some famous European Scots. We don’t want to offend anyone by giving you a shortlist. So we only want to give a shout out to one of them: Lesley Riddoch, who has invited us to this wonderful gathering tonight and is the beating heart of Scotland’s Independence movement.
Our campaign was also joined by some of the most significant political philosophers and democracy scholars in Europe. The ones that teach classes on democracy that members of the UK government clearly didn’t attend.
Today is a sad anniversary for Scotland and for all of us Europeans who believe in democracy.
Exactly three years ago today, England imposed its hard Brexit on all the other nations of the United Kingdom, stripping all of their citizens of their European rights.
As a result, the past three years have been marked by political instability, economic decline and a steady erosion of democratic values.
Brexit has deprived millions of citizens of opportunities to study, work, travel and trade freely within the EU.
It has increased poverty and inequality within the UK, whilst fostering a hostile environment for refugees.
Make no mistake, Brexit, and the way it was handled, has drastically diminished Britain’s international reputation. In Brussels, as much as anywhere else in the world.
At the same time, Scotland is emerging from the ashes of Brexit as an inspiration for many of us in Europe.
This is because Scotland developed over the years a civic, inclusive, internationalist movement for self-determination that challenges xenophobic nationalism across Europe and beyond..
And while we say this let us pay tribute to the memory of Tom Nairn who passed away last week.
He was not only among the 200 European intellectuals who launched our campaign but our strongest intellectual inspiration together with his friend Anthony Barnett.
So we would like to pay tribute to a good friend, someone that the First Minister described as “one of the greatest thinkers, political theorists and intellectuals that Scotland has ever produced”.
Let us tell you something. When we ask Europeans to sign our open letter the answer is almost invariably: Of course!
But sometimes people wonder, do we really need to say this aloud? Surely everyone in Scotland must know that Europeans like Scots and would love to welcome them back in the EU.
We are here to tell you: please never doubt.
Europeans care about you.
Europeans understand the democratic injustice inflicted on you.
And on the day when you reclaim your place as a sovereign nation within our European family we will celebrate all over Europe your victory over Brexit.
We hope all of you will continue to spread the word to Scots that have lost confidence after years and years of disrespect from Westminster.
We can only repeat what Europe for Scotland’s activists said in 5 European Capitals and, in 5 European languages following the Supreme Court verdict in November:
Brexit must not be Scotland’s destiny.
To our friend Alyn Smith whose speeches in the European parliament are very much part of our collective memory, we want to say this.
From Romania to France, from Denmark to Spain, from Germany to Italy
Europeans will not let Scotland down.
Europeans will always keep a light on for Scotland.
In the months and years ahead our campaign will do everything we can to express the solidarity of European citizens and mobilise the support of European institutions.
So, however long it takes, let’s keep this flame burning!
“great English people” — what a VERY SAD formulation.
Similarly, your reference to “our strongest intellectual inspiration” is also inherently class-ist, i.e., implies that some people are “better” or “more important” (or whatever) than others.
Doubtless, you have high opinions of yourselves; or have you not actually thought-through your own words?
Dear Roy, every human being should be respected and treated equally and with dignity. This does not prevent to praise achievements of individuals, does it?
Great English people means just praising their achievements as writer, musician etc. Doesn’t mean they are better in absolute terms. We could have used a different adjective like talented perhaps.
But quite clearly we were praising others, not ourselves 🙂