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Kosovo 'tool kit for separatists'

Kosovo's independence has provided a tool kit for secessionist movements in Europe and beyond, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has said. (...)

"By the actions of some European member-states, every would-be ethnic or religious separatist across Europe and around the world has been provided with a tool kit on how to achieve recognition," he said.

"Does anyone in this room think that the Kosovo Albanians are the only group in the world with a grievance against their capital?"
(...)

And he's dead right. Amongst others, Italy's racist-secessionist Northern Leaguers - the immigrant-kicking guys who wear anti-muslim cartoon-teeshirts under their suits and think Italians from north of the Po Valley are "racially" superior to all other Italians 'cause a higher percentage of Germanic genes got forcibly admixed into their gene-pool by Longobard invaders around 560 AD so they should now save taxes and avoid further gene-contamination by breaking off from the rest of the country and setting themselves up as a separate "nation" called "Padania" - are already jumping up and down in glee.  

From a speech made in Italy's parliament today by Northern  League MP Borghezio (my trans):

"[Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence] is a concrete application of the principle of self-determination of peoples foreseen in the UN Charter", commented the Northern League MP, adding however that he is seriously concerned about "the creation of the first Islamist state in Europe, as already hailed by all the jihadist press,  and the fate of the Orthodox Christian Serbian minority". Nevertheless, he stressed, "it is and remains a legal and political precedent which cannot be denied, a very important precedent for all those who aspire to independence in Europe, from Corsica to Flanders, from Sardinia to Eusaki and to our own Padania, still Nations without a State".

....add Scotland Wales Brittany and Cornwall... add scientologists mormons and moonies.... add Capri, Ischia, Lipari and Lampedusa ... add my backyard and yours.

"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami

by eternalcityblues (parvati_roma aaaat libero.it) on Wed Feb 20th, 2008 at 02:29:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm not quite sure why we should object? If the crazies want to secede, why should we say anything other than "good riddance!"? Of course, some accord will have to be reached to protect those non-crazies who do not want to secede, just as an accord should have been reached in Kosova to protect those citizens who didn't want to secede.

And of course some measures will have to be taken to prevent people from seceding in order to not have to pay their fair share of taxes. But in the case of land-locked secessionists, that's pretty simple - after all, it's not like they're going to be members of the WTO, so we can trade-war them to bankruptcy if they act as flag-of-convenience countries for rich tax cheats.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Feb 20th, 2008 at 03:16:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]

You mean like we do now for Liechtenstein? Not too convincing...

But a new country is unlikely to be a flag-of-convenience one for rich tax cheats right away. People like this perfer places with a reputation for stability, something you get only after many years of independence.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Feb 20th, 2008 at 03:54:36 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You mean like we do now for Liechtenstein? Not too convincing...

No, actually I was thinking something more along the lines of what the Israeli are doing to Gaza. Maybe sans the airstrikes, though.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Feb 20th, 2008 at 06:10:22 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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