National Breton Party

Strollad Breizh - Parti Breton

PARTI BRETON – STROLLAD BREIZH
Brittany in the northwestern part of France counts around 4,5 million people today. Brittany does not benefit from a recognition of its original culture. The existence of the last Celtic language of the continent, the Breton, is threatened. It is the aim of the Breton National Party to give back to the Breton people the political, economic and cultural powers it has been deprived of. The Breton National Party, founded in 2003, aims to work on the implementation of a democracy with the values of freedom, justice, equity and solidarity. A participatory and responsible democracy in which all the citizens will be full players of the political, social and cultural life through the implementation of greatly expanded local powers. BretonNational Party is a member of FUEN since 2013.

The Bretons are a Celtic ethnic group native to the historical region Brittany. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mostly during the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain. They migrated in waves from the 3rd to 9th century (most heavily from 450 to 600) into Armorica, which was subsequently named Brittany after them.

The actual number of ethnic Bretons in Brittany and France as a whole is difficult to assess as the government of France does not collect statistics on ethnicity. The main traditional language of Brittany is Breton (Brezhoneg), spoken in Lower Brittany. As one of the Brittonic languages, Breton is related closely to Cornish and more distantly to Welsh. It is the only Celtic language to be found on the mainland of Europe.

In 1914, over 1 million people spoke Breton, 90% of the population of the western half of Brittany. In 1945, it was about 75%, and today, in all of Brittany, at most 20% of Bretons can speak Breton. Currently, most Bretons’ native language is standard French. Seventy-five percent of the estimated 200,000 to 250,000 Breton speakers using Breton as an everyday language today are over the age of 65. Breton is considered to be a highly endangered language. The language is still not accepted by France as official language. Nevertheless the language is taught at schools the last couple of years.