"Medium powers must act together because if they are not at the table, they are on the menu.
Today's major powers can afford act alone; they have the market size, military strength and ability to dictate terms.
[...] In a world of rivalry between these major powers, countries in the middle have a choice: compete with each other to gain favours or unite to create a third way."
This appeal by Mark Carney (Canadian Prime Minister) was the starting point for the conference held on Friday 6 March at the headquarters of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region in Udine, organised by the European Free Alliance Youth and the Council group to which Patto per l’Autonomia belongs.
Three representatives of autonomist political movements from Scotland, Schleswig-Holstein and Valle d'Aosta (all three under 35) outlined the mechanisms that led their respective parties to electoral success and discussed the role that regions could play in creating a new model of European Union.
Olaf Stando, vice-president of EFAY and secretary to Scottish First Minister John Swinney, spoke about the history of the Scottish National Party and how crucial it is to have a territorial party that works exclusively for the interests of the community it represents.
From the topic of Scottish independence from the United Kingdom to the self-management of Scotland's rich natural resources, the SNP was successful because it presented itself as the only credible alternative to Westminster parties, which are perceived by the electorate as distant and focused on other interests.
In Scotland, the ability to have an autonomous, independent and indigenous political class pays off more than the labels of the big “state” parties.
Maylis Roßberg, president of EFAY and former Spitzenkandidat for the European Commission in 2024, described how the SSW Südschleswigsche Wählerverband, the party representing the Danish minority in Germany (40,000 people), managed to achieve a historic record of 76,000 votes in the 2025 elections and, thanks to this extraordinary result, obtain a seat in the Bundestag in Berlin.
The recipe? It's called “diplomacy”.
The SSW is a party of reference in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is perceived by the community as “essential” because no other party, except the SSW, would represent the interests of the region in Berlin. It is also perceived as “useful” by the major parties such as the CDU, because it is a reliable, competent and open interlocutor.
Frédéric Piccoli, collaborator at Montecitorio with members of parliament representing linguistic minorities, spoke about the recent success of the Union Valdôtaine in the regional elections of September 2025, where the party took first place with 32% of the votes.
In 2022, the Union Valdôtaine allied with the “national” centre-left, while in the last round, the alliance was formed with the centre-right (Forza Italia) for the regional government and with the centre-left for the city of Aosta.
“This is the miracle of the autonomist parties, which now ally themselves with the right, now with the left, outside the autonomist sphere, in a pragmatic approach. Is it easy to bear these changes, being inside? No, it's not easy. However, we act in this way because the goal is not to take sides in a political field but to provide answers to our communities. If the goal is to achieve results that cannot be achieved alone, not opening up to those who can make a concrete contribution would mean accepting to govern without being able to solve problems”
The priority given to the territory (communities and businesses), linguistic minorities and the international vocation that a region such as Valle d'Aosta has among its specific characteristics were equally essential factors for the Union in achieving an historic result.
All three representatives emphasised that in order to govern their territories virtuously, it is first and foremost necessary to represent them in the places where decisions are made.
This concept, although it may seem obvious, is in fact not at all so.
The presence in their respective territories of parties made up of autonomous and indigenous leadership classes, i.e. those that can operate outside the limits “imposed” by the interests of the large state parties, is ultimately of decisive importance in a party's ability to influence the territory and in the perception that that party has for its respective community.
These methods of governance and widespread work across the territory, combined with the essential commitment to cooperation between regions, the sharing of best practices and the aim of expanding federalism in Europe, form the basis and, at the same time, represent the direction (or the Passo Giusto) on the path to making the European Union a more representative institution.
An insitution capable of transforming the current narrative based upon force into a narrative founded once again upon international law; a Europe ready to guarantee at all levels of democracy the ability to be effective and to truly transform communities, towards that concept which can be summarised in the sentence “in the big picture, everything that is necessary; in the small picture, everything that is possible”.
Gabriele Violino - European Free Alliance Youth