Atlas / Claim checks / Is the SNP nationalist like Le Pen
Is the SNP nationalist like Le Pen? The claim, measured
“Nationalism is nationalism — the SNP and the National Rally are the same phenomenon.”
Measured against Scottish National Party and National Rally
Distance is measured across six independent axes, each running from −10 to +10, out of a maximum separation of 49.0. How the scoring works →
Strongest case for the claim
Both organise around national self-determination against a larger political unit, both mobilise identity, and both grew by displacing established parties on a sovereignty question the mainstream had treated as settled.
Strongest case against
In the 2014 referendum on Scotland's existence as a state, EU and Commonwealth citizens resident in Scotland could vote and Scots living elsewhere in the UK could not. The membership rule was residence. The National Rally's programme proposes national preference in employment and welfare, restriction of jus soli and removal of dual nationality.
What the coordinates show. The SNP scores −03 on membership and the National Rally +07 — ten points apart on the axis the question assumes nationalism determines. They are also opposed on culture and on scale. Distance 22.8. Nationalism is not a position on this map; it is a claim about the correct unit of political community, and it attaches to almost any set of coordinates.
The six measurements
| Axis | SNP | RN, Front National | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −04 | −01 | 3 |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −06 | +08 | 14 |
| AU · Organisation of power | −04 | +04 | 8 |
| SC · Scale of decision | −07 | +03 | 10 |
| ID · Rule of membership | −03 | +07 | 10 |
| CH · Method and tempo | −05 | −01 | 4 |
Both cases are stated because the atlas does not settle arguments by assertion. Where the underlying dispute is conceptual rather than factual, that is said plainly rather than resolved.
Full comparisonCheck it yourself
The interactive atlas holds 319 organisations on six independent axes with the evidence for every score. Paste any claim that equates two political things and it will find them and report the measurement.