European integration as a factor of legitimizing Breton ethnopolitical regionalism

The subject of the research is European integration as a factor in the legitimization of Breton ethnopolitical regionalism. The object of the study is Breton ethnopolitical regionalism as a form of political articulation of a minority ethnic group within the framework of the French model of a political nation. The author examines in detail such aspects of the topic as the ideological foundations of Breton ethnopolitical regionalism in the works of O. Mordrel and Y. Fuehre, the party activities of the Breton Democratic Union (UDB) within the European Free Alliance (ALE), and the coordinating role of the federation "Solidarity of Peoples and Regions" (RPS) in harmonizing the demands of various ethnopolitical movements in France. Special attention is paid to the conflict between the concept of civic universalism, which underlies the French political nation, and the ethnic forms of identification that this model pushes to the periphery of the political space. The study employs a comparative political analysis of the ideological and programmatic documents of Breton and other regionalist organizations in France, combined with conceptual analysis of the theories of ethnoregionalism, political identity, and supranational representation. The main findings of the research are as follows: European integration serves the function of legitimizing Breton ethnopolitical regionalism, limiting the monopoly of the national state on defining permissible forms of political identity. It has been established that this legitimization is implemented in three interrelated forms: through the integration of UDB into the structure of European party networks (ALE), through the coordination of similar demands of various ethnopolitical movements in France within the framework of RPS, and through the raising of administrative-territorial disputes to the supranational level – as in the case of Bretagne Réunie’s appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that for the first time, based on a comprehensive analysis of ideological texts, party documents, and judicial materials, specific forms of European legitimization of Breton regionalism have been systematized. A special contribution of the author to the study of the topic is the justification that the European level serves as an exit for Breton actors from the ethnopolitical contradiction between open confrontation with the national state and assimilation, allowing them to represent Bretons as an ethnic group whose language, culture, and territory possess political significance beyond the framework of the French model of civic universalism.