Welsh Nationalists See Brexit as a Chance to Discuss Secession

Plaid Cymru: Wales Can't Risk Being 'Forgotten Part' of Crumbling UK

While the immediate fallout from Thursday’s Brexit vote was mostly focused on Northern Ireland and Scotland and their potential secession, Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru is now pushing such a conversation to be had in Wales as well.

Party leader Leanne Wood insisted the Brexit vote “changed everything,” and that the potential secession of Northern Ireland and Scotland would effectively mean the end of the United Kingdom, warning that Wales could quickly become “a forgotten part of an England-and-Wales entity.

Unlike Northern Ireland and Scotland, however, Wales voted slightly in favor of the Brexit, though the city of Cardiff itself voted strongly in favor of remaining. Plaid Cymru is the third largest party in the Welsh Assembly, and also holds a couple of seats in the House of Commons.

The party’s hope seems to be that the post-vote fallout is going to add to the interest in secession in general around the UK, and that this would inevitably bolster their position. Whether that holds true in Wales, nearly a millennium since their last real taste of independence, remains to be seen.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.