As Other See Us: How Europe's press discovered Scots as Europeans

The front page headline in Madrid’s La Razón on Wednesday channeled such fears: “Panic at a Black Friday”, it splashed above a picture of a nervous looking David Cameron.

The paper, like many others, was carrying claims from the European Central Bank that the bloc’s financial institutions were ready for anything that might follow Brexit. 

But La Razón also listed those warning of serious consequences for global markets in the US, the UK and the Eurozone. At stake, the future of a country that, at current exchange rates, is officially the EU’s second largest economy, at least on paper.

La Razón: "Panic at a Black Friday."

La Razón was one of men to carry dire warnings of the crash in sterling from both market leaders such as George Soros and institutions such as the Bank of England.

But Euro angst about Brexit extends well beyond economics in to the complex field of speculative geopolitics. Would other member states follow the UK out of the EU? And, would Scotland quit the UK? Could the rise of xenophobia in these islands give succour to the continent’s Europhobic far right?

Staying in Spain, El País also splashed on Brexit but issued a stirring but worry-filled editorial for Britain to stay. 

“Many Europeans would also like to vote today,” it thundered. But in appreciation of British democracy and to ward off the risk that a British breakaway would incite xenophobia and authoritarianism and to reinforce the links which bind us rather than destroy them, Britons vote to remain among us. Please."

El País: "The UK today decides its future and that of the rest of Europe."

Brexit, after all, is not just a British event. It is a global one. Its consequences, international media stressed, would be felt far beyond these shores.

“Brexit, the longest day for Europe,” splashed La Repubblica in Italy on Thursday. Like La Razon, La Repubblica warned markets feared a “Black Friday’ and a crash in the pound. The Borsa in Milan, the paper said, was recovering thanks suggestions of a last-minute recovery for Remain.

“The British vote is the event of the year and investors move to the rhythm of the polls,” the paper said. 

La Repubblica: The longest day for Europe.

German titles have been desperate to see Britain stay in. Some of their headlines have clearly been aimed at an English readership. 

Amid all the grim and scary headlines, German tabloid Bild tried to see the funny side on Thursday. Its front page offer to British readers: Germany will admit that England’s dodgy goal in the 1966 final was good; they will stop laughing at Prince William; they will even use their towels to reserve sun loungers for British tourists.

Bild

This appeal came after Der Spiegel, the influential news magazine, earlier in the campaign begged Britain to stay in an English language front page bedecked in the union jack.

Der Spiegel: "Please Don't Go."

Many Europeans, as every Scottish tourist knows, muddle “England” and the “UK”. But thanks to the 2014 independence referendum and the Brexit vote, more and more journalism on the continent draws clear distinctions between the nations and regions of the UK.

France’s Le Monde on its front page featured a gag that has been doing the rounds in French media for a week or two: “Brexit, the disunited Kingdom.” The driving force of the anti-EU campaign, it said, was English nationalism, not British.

Libération picked up the them with a pull out map highlighting  the blue of Europe - Scotland and London - and the "red without'.

Libération today

This theme has been familiar. Le Parisien earlier this week headlined on “the Geography of Brexit, an English campaign against London and Scotland”.

France, of course, has long forgotten its Auld Alliance with Scotland before the Union. But the country is now being reminded of long lost ties. 

“Traditionally, Scotland has always had stronger links with Europe, especially France,” Le Parisien quotes Professor Ron Johnston. “Also it was Edinburgh, not London that was the heart of the British Enlightenment. “The universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Glasgow are more ancient than most English universities. This is the source of important cosmopolitanism.”

Prof Johnston also explained that the better educated and more travelled people of London and English university cities were more Europhile.

This is an image of Scotland many Scots rarely hear: that we are more sophisticated, educated and cosmopolitan than the English.

France TV did a special report this week from one of Britain’s most Europhile cities: Stirling. Its online cited a local: “I feel more European than British.”  That quote, it turns out, comes from one Alan Waldron, a 45-year-old bagpipe maker. “I feel more at home in France or Germany than in England,’ he told the French TV station. “But above all I feel Scottish.”

France TV 

For Scottish readers, this is standard nationalist fare and some unionists will no doubt take such protestations with a pinch of salt. But it is mostly new to Europeans.

France TV, it has to be said, goes on to stress that Scottish Europhilia is a relatively recent development.

But my impression, for what it is worth, is that Scotland is gradually being seen in a different light.

Could one of the unexpected consequences of the EU referendum on the continent be that Scotland is not just seen as an eccentric English region of bagpipes, whisky and mythical monsters? 

Hence headline after headline speculating about a second independence referendum after Brexit.