Campaign calling for reunification of Brittany gathers pace

Luke James

In the heart of Nantes sits a gothic castle which was once the court of the dukes of Brittany and now houses the city’s history museum.

Visitors learn about how Nantes was the capital of Brittany for hundreds of years, with the castle serving as the seat of power of an independent country until 1532 – more than a century after Owain Glyndwr’s rebellion ended in Wales.

After visiting the city’s top attraction, tourists might eat at one of the many traditional Breton creperies in the old town, washing them down with Breize cola or Breton cider.

But, while Nantes might be historically and culturally Breton, there will today be a demonstration in the city for the second time in three weeks because it is, officially, not part of Brittany.

Thousands of people are expected to travel from across Brittany to Nantes to take part in a ‘day of action for reunification’ organised by the Breize Unvan (Brittany Reunited) group.

The port city and the ‘Loire Atlantique’ department of which it is part was first separated from the four other Breton departments during World War II when France was under the control of the Nazi collaborationist Vichy regime.

Pays de la Loire

The separation was maintained after the war and, since regionalisation of France in the 1970s, Nantes and its department have been part of an administrative region called ‘Pays de la Loire’.

“Everyone has a right to feel Breton or not, but historically, it’s a concrete fact that Loire Atlantique was an integral part of Brittany,” said Yves-Alain Le Goff, a 56 year old musician, a member of Brittany Reunited.

“There was a phase of regionalisation in the 1970s. It wasn’t residents of Loire Atlantique who asked not to be part of Brittany, it was imposed from one day to the next by Paris.

“The state fears a strong Brittany and so they removed the biggest city of Brittany, in terms of population and economic power. Saying Nantes isn’t part of Brittany is like saying Paris isn’t part of France.”

Protests

There have been regular protests against the break-up of Brittany over the last 50 years, most notably in 2014 when the French government announced its intention to cut the number of regions in half.

That sparked hopes among supporters of reunification and around 30,000 people took to the streets in Nantes.

The reform did lead to the reunification of a historic region, but it was Normandy rather than Brittany which was chosen by the government of the then French President, François Hollande.

1500 personnes dans les rues de #Nantes pour la réunification, le droit de décider en #Bretagne, la solidarité internationale et contre l’extrême droite.
RDV le 5/10 contre #Bolloré et le 12/10 à #Cahraix pour la sauvegarde des services publics de santé en Bretagne. La suite 👇 pic.twitter.com/PukKEPVfl5

— Dispac’h (@Dispach_bzh) September 30, 2024

The situation could have become even worse for supporters of reunification. The same process saw another culturally distinct area, Alsace, subsumed into a new ‘Grand Est’ (Great East) super region with a population of almost six million.

Fear

“France has an irrational fear of its own regions”, added Le Goff. “They do everything they can to divide them.

“It’s no secret that Paris, under Hollande and his Prime Minister Manuel Valls, wanted to make Brittany part of a Grand Ouest as they’ve made Alsace part of a Grand Est. There was so much resistance that in the end they settled for the status quo.

“The polls say consistently that 70 per cent are in favour of reunification in Loire Atlantique and those numbers have been stable for a number of years. There are very few people who are against it.”

Brittany Reunited sought to prove their case in 2018 with a petition calling for a consultation on reunification, which was signed by more than 100,000 residents of Loire Atlantique – more than 10% of all voters.

Referendum

Since then, the municipal council of Nantes, and then the council of the Loire Atlantique department, have both voted for motions calling on the French government to hold a referendum on reunification.

An independent study on the impact of reunification published earlier this year showed the importance of Nantes to Brittany. In the event of reunification, Brittany’s population would
increase by 40% and its GDP would grow by 48%.

Michel Ménard, president of the Loire-Atlantique department, said he hoped the report would inform a “transparent and calm” debate over reunification to be concluded through a referendum.

“The state must respect a non-negotiable rule,” he added. “When citizens vote, that vote must be put into effect. It can’t be treated as a simple consultation.”

As part of the reunification push, Aziliz Gouez, vice-president of the Nantes metropolitan region, has become the first representative from Nantes to also sit in the Breton regional council.

As well as addressing historic and cultural anomalies, she said rejoining Brittany was important to improve social outcomes in Loire Atlantique.

“The project is to reunify Brittany but at the same time to claim autonomy, or devolution,” Gouez, a former speech writer to Irish President Michael D. Higgins, told Nation.Cymru.

“From the point of view of the people of Loire Atlantique and their elected representatives, the only thing that would really change the game is the possibility of joining a Breton region which would have devolved powers in fields that are essential to daily life.

“We want power in the fields of health, housing, social cohesion, the Breton language, and transport. There’s a huge housing crisis underway, as there is in Wales and the west of Ireland, caused by holiday homes.”

Far-right

The rise of the French far-right is attracting new support for devolution in Brittany, she said. The demonstration which took place in Nantes last week was both for reunification and against the far-right.

Although, as Nation.Cymru has reported, far-right activity has also spiked in Brittany and Marine Le Pen’s National Rally saw a big increase in support there during July’s parliamentary elections.

“Nantes, and Loire Atlantique, are stuck with a very conservative right-wing region when Nantes and its surroundings are very progressive and left-wing,” said Gouez.

“At a time when we see the central government very close to being won over by the far-right, it’s really opening the debate. More people are interested and understanding the urgency of it all.

“If the state and central administration is governed tomorrow by the far-right, and you have no power at the level of your region, there’s no way you can have social or environmental public policies. So the urgency is to create a counter power at the level of the region.”

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