DISINFO: The EU will help Scotland to fight for its independence
SUMMARY
One minute after the UK finally left the EU on the midnight of January 1, 2021, Scotland’s prime minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe don’t turn off the lights”. One hour later, an article she wrote was published in the European edition of Politico under the expressive headline: “Brexit changed the rules of the game for Scottish independence”. If her tweet can be considered a beautiful gesture of a politician, the publication of her article in Politico, whose headquarters are in Brussels, clearly insinuates that the European Union has the intention to provide support for Scotland’s separatism and take a section of the former Great Britain.
RESPONSE
The claim is false. Politico Europe is a private media company unrelated to the European Union, which has no say in the contents that this outlet decides to publish. Therefore, the claim that the publication of Nicola Sturgeon’s article “insinuates that the EU has the intention to provide support for Scotland’s separatism” is baseless.
Besides, the European Union has no intention to help Scotland fight for its independence. Some European leaders and former EU officials made it clear that, while an independent Scotland may be welcome back in the block if it applied to rejoin, this would only happen if it achieved its independence in a way consistent with British and international legislation, which would include the permission of the UK’s Parliament to launch a new referendum.
See other examples of disinformation narratives about the EU and separatism, such as claims that the EU’s ruling elite intends to take the bloc down through it, that Europeans invented the theory of global separatism, or that Josep Borrell refuses to fight separatism in the EU.