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• Date: 27/10/2008

  Autonomists retain absolute majority in South Tyrol elections

  

  The South Tyrolean People’s Party, which has dominated politics in the province in recent decades, wins just over 50% of votes, down seven percentage points · The Libertarians, a populist party that wants unification with Austria, are the big winners of the election, tripling their support and becoming the second largest party in the provincial assembly.

• Date: 24/10/2008

  Peoples and nations today: Corsica

  

  DOSSIER. Conscious that their island is not merely a French region like any other, the people of Corsica have repeatedly called for self-government in the past, and despite frequent internal divisions, in recent years they have managed to find a chink in the armour of the centralized and homogenizing French state. Corsica’s political parties and its active civil society are striving to protect and promote the island’s valuable cultural, linguistic and ecological heritage.

• Date: 23/10/2008

  Around sixty Corsican councillors sign up to new nationalist federation

  ‘A Federazione di l’eletti’ is made up of departmental and regional councillors and mayors · Federation members describe themselves as nationalist, green and progressive · The alliance has been set up as part of efforts to restructure Corsica’s pro-sovereignty camp.

• Date: 21/10/2008

  Bolivia's new constitution secures political and cultural rights for indigenous peoples

  Indigenous communities are granted autonomy and official status to their 36 indigenous languages · Government and opposition parties agree to hold a referendum on the draft constitution in January 2009 · Bolivians will have the chance to vote on a constitution for the first time · Tens of thousands of President Morales’ supporters take to the streets of La Paz to show support for the new constitution.

• Date: 15/10/2008

  Sovereigntist party maintains lead in Quebec

  Canadian federal elections held on Tuesday result in victory for the current Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, but his party fails to secure an absolute majority because of the landslide victory for the Bloc Québécois in Quebec.

• Date: 14/10/2008

  Haider’s legacy of xenophobia and disrespect for Austria’s marginalized peoples

  As leader of the far right in Austria and Governor of Carinthia, Jörg Haider’s policies were markedly anti-Slovene · Last week representatives of the Slovene community, who have expressed their condolences over the politician’s death, delivered a stark warning about the “risk of democratic, social and institutional fragmentation” after an extraordinary increase of support for the far right in parliamentary elections.

• Date: 10/10/2008

  Peoples and nations today: Scotland

  

  DOSSIER. A stateless nation that has made meteoric progress towards self-government, Alba (the Gaelic name for Scotland) did not even have its own parliament ten years ago, but today an independence party, the Scottish National Party, is in government and intends to hold a referendum on independence in 2010. With the SNP’s main political rival, Labour, struggling and the current First Minister doing well in the polls, Scotland seems better placed than any other nation to put the idea of internal enlargement of the European Union into practice.

• Date: 08/10/2008

  Bolivian Congress begins debating new constitution

  Government and opposition leaders have failed to reach an agreement in recent weeks · Morales agrees to revise the text of the new constitution.

• Date: 06/10/2008

  Municipal elections in Bosnia reveal growing ethnic divisions

  

  Radical nationalist parties from each of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three major ethnic communities make gains · Poor results for interethnic parties and high abstention rates in urban areas.

• Date: 03/10/2008

  Frisian parties unite in bid to get Frisian language recognized by Dutch constitution

  

  No languages currently mentioned in Dutch constitution, but interior minister wants reference to Dutch alone · Frisian is official in the province of Friesland and is the second most widely-spoken language in the Netherlands · Lobbying by Frisian parties and pressure from civil society have forced the minister to rethink her proposal.