The Catalans are making the same mistake as some Brexiteers

The current crisis – not too strong a term – began a long time ago. And in a sense part of it really is the European Union’s fault. The EU’s failures, or rather shortcomings, play a part in this story but the greater share of it is the consequence of the EU’s successes, not its weaknesses. Across much of Europe, previously unquestioned ideas about the nation state – and its sanctity – are now subjected to some interrogation. The United Kingdom has some recent experience of this and so, of course, do Belgium and Spain. This moment has been building for some time; even, perhaps, for more than a quarter of a century. 

The collapse of the Soviet Union unblocked a drain, reopening history. From the Baltic to the Caucasus, new states emerged or re-emerged, blinking in the sunlight of what was, undoubtedly, a real form of liberation. Yugoslavia was more complicated and, of course, more terrible but, again, could be portrayed as a kind of freedom-seeking even if the ancient claims to statehood enjoyed by some of the newly-independent successors to Yugoslavia were more tenuous than others.