The anti-immigration Reform U.K. party resoundingly defeated the governing center-left Labour Party in local elections across England earlier this month, which may yet cost the prime minister his job.
So far, so normal: Right-wing nationalism is on the rise across western democracies and beyond. But in two pockets of the U.K., another kind of nationalism prevailed: a progressive variety of Welsh and Scottish nationalism that sees itself very much on the left. In Wales, Plaid Cymru — or the Party of Wales — will govern for the first time. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party won a fifth term. Both parties beat back Reform in their respective nations.
Today I write about what Welsh- and Scottish-style progressive nationalism looks like and whether it can be exported.
The nationalists welcoming immigrants
When I spoke to him after his recent victory, Rhun ap Iorwerth, the first minister of Wales, said things like: Immigration “can and does enrich us.” And “people who love our nation include those who were born here and those who moved here yesterday.”
His Scottish counterpart, John Swinney, has struck similar notes: Scotland needs immigrants, he says. And “I believe with every fiber of my body in the importance of inclusion.”
These are leaders of nationalist parties. But they don’t talk the way we’re used to hearing nationalist leaders talk.
Over the past decade or so, the word “nationalist” has come to be primarily associated with the right, whether it’s the B.J.P.’s Hindu nationalism, MAGA’s attempt to end birthright citizenship or Reform’s call for mass deportations. What they share is that their ideas of the nation are exclusionary. Not everyone can become a full-fledged Indian or American or British citizen.
Ap Iorwerth and Swinney are doing something different: a politics that, like other forms of nationalism, sees itself as grounded in a sense of place and a shared history, but that nonetheless views the nation as a project anyone can participate in.
Welsh- and Scottish-style progressive nationalism was born out of very specific circumstances. But their victories are a case study in what a different sort of nationalism might look like.
Ethnic vs. civic nationalism
People who study the subject sometimes draw a distinction between what they call ethnic nationalism and civic nationalism.
What we tend to associate with nationalism in 2026 are right-wing movements that see belonging as a question of whose claims to a country date back the furthest. It doesn’t take much for that to morph into ethnic nationalism. What Plaid and the S.N.P. promote — a nation that includes anyone who pledges allegiance to a set of values they see rooted in Welsh and Scottish tradition — is sometimes called civic nationalism.
Both approaches place a heavy emphasis on building a shared sense of identity. Reform wants to put portraits of the king in every classroom; the S.N.P. and Plaid want more use of the Welsh and Gaelic languages in schools. And both draw on cultural heritage to tell a story of the nation. Where they differ is on the sort of cultural heritage they emphasize.
If Reform’s story celebrates a golden age of Britain that predates the country’s modern diversity, Plaid and the S.N.P. tell a story of their people’s struggle for self-determination. Ever since the policies of Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative prime minister, shuttered their heavy industries, most Scottish and Welsh voters have cast their ballots to the left of the English. Their nationalism is fueled by a shared indignation at being governed by a larger power with different values.
In one story, immigrants have diluted British culture; they are weakening the nation. In the other, immigrants are not the problem — Westminster is. Immigrants are actually a means of saving the nation in societies that experience falling birthrates and emigration, as young people leave for better opportunities elsewhere.
I saw this attitude embodied in Humza Yousaf, the former leader of the Scottish nationalists, who is a descendant of Punjabi and Kenyan immigrants. When I met him some years ago, he was designing his own tartan: the Yousaf tartan, which he hopes will live alongside its MacDonald and MacDuff counterparts for all the Scottish Yousafs who will come after him — many, he hopes.
Of course, what also makes both Plaid and the S.N.P. nationalist is that they support a path to independence from Britain.
Which raises the question: Could their approach really find traction elsewhere?
“An incomplete ideology”
The right has found a way to tap into nationalist sentiment that resonates.
The left, though, tends to be uncomfortable with nationalism, which often sees it as a cousin of racism and imperialism, said Bernard Yack, a political theorist at Brandeis University. But there is actually no reason nationalism should be associated with racism or even with the right, he said.
It’s “an incomplete ideology,” he told me, without a predetermined agenda. That’s why it melded easily with almost every other ideology out there, from fascism to communism to national liberation movements.
And so even left-leaning parties not seeking independence could find ways to respond to voters’ acute yearning for a sense of belonging and community, said Richard Child, a lecturer at Manchester University.
Some are already experimenting with this. The former leader of Britain’s Green Party, Caroline Lucas, recently wrote a book called “Another England: How to Reclaim Our National Story,” evoking Robin Hood and the N.H.S., instead of empire and monarchy. In Germany, I watched the Greens campaign wearing dirndls and touring the country quoting the national anthem.
But Child also noted that this sense of yearning for community was in part a response to people’s lives being difficult. And so a good story is not enough, if a party can’t ultimately deliver on improvements to those lives.
After all, Reform is making inroads in Scotland and Wales, too.
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Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.
That’s it for today. See you tomorrow! — Katrin
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Katrin Bennhold is the host of The World, the flagship global newsletter of The New York Times.
The post When Nationalism Beats Nationalism appeared first on New York Times.
