If your only source of news was the mainstream media, you could be forgiven for thinking that the consensus in the EU regarding an independent Scotland was bleak. Spain would, we’re told endlessly, veto Scotland’s place in the EU out of hand, and so, allegedly, would France.

And when Scotland’s First Minister went to Brussels after the referendum vote to meet with EU officials in regards to Scotland’s membership, we were told that this bold act of outreach fell on deaf ears.

The language of the press was hostile bordering on sadistic. The First Minister, acting to secure the democratic will of the people of Scotland, was apparently “running out of friends” and had to “beg” Ireland to help us out.

The reality, readers will be astonished to hear, is somewhat different.

Newspapers like the Express, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the Sun revelled in what they claimed was the “humiliation”, the “rejection” and the “desperation” of Nicola Sturgeon as the EU’s “snub” delivered a “devastating blow” which “kills off” her “bid” for Scotland’s EU membership.

It’s no coincidence that those papers all backed a Leave vote in 2016, and a No vote in 2014. They all believe Scotland is British, and that the UK is their chosen polis. Therefore, there’s no inconsistency between them ridiculing Nicola Sturgeon and the 62% of Scots she speaks for in this regard, because from a UK context the majority of Scots is still a tiny and irrelevant minority of UK voters. Scots have to suck it up: “Leave won, we’re going out of Europe, get over it.”

But it does mean they have to ignore several facts that are inconvenient to their cackling delight in Scotland’s supposed failure.

Here, for example, is the First Minister on her trip, meeting the head honcho of the European Commission himself, Jean-Claude Juncker.

Margaritis Schinas is the chief spokesperson for the EU Commission.

And in Mr Juncker’s own words:

Here, the FM is meeting the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.

And an unnamed EU official told one of Belgium’s Francophone newspapers:

It’s not just the European Parliament. A “senior Eurozone government official” was quoted by Buzzfeed News last week as saying “an independent Scotland would probably be granted a fast track to EU membership”. In fact, individual governments all around the EU have voiced their support for Scotland remaining in the community.

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BELGIUM

The First Minister met with Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Group, which has 70 MEPs:

Mr Verhofstadt explained his perspective on Scotland remaining part of the EU in the event of independence.

“The Dual Kingdom of England and Wales”. An interesting turn of phrase?

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GERMANY

Reuters reported on 24 June that:

Is anyone else in Germany so welcoming to Scotland?

Mr Weber is the leader of the European People’s Party Group, the largest single group in the European Parliament, with 216 members. And he’s not alone among the German chancellor’s colleagues:

Sigmar Gabriel is the Minister for Economic Affairs & Energy, the Vice-Chancellor, and Chairman of the Social Democratic Party.

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IRELAND

John Bruton, former Prime Minister of Ireland, said the Scottish Government’s timetable for European integration after a 2014 Yes vote was entirely feasible:

Enda Kenny is the Taoiseach of Ireland, and spoke for the First Minister at the European Summit after the EU referendum.

Micheál Martin is the leader of Fianna Fáil, the second largest party in the Republic of Ireland (operating a confidence-and-supply arrangement with Fine Gael).

Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, spoke at the Scottish Parliament a few days after the European referendum.

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SPAIN

The Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Garcia-Margallo expressly denied in 2012 that Spain would veto the membership of an independent Scotland:

This stance makes perfect sense, as Spain has welcomed the independence of several new countries – including ones that joined the European Union.

James Ker-Lindsay of the London School of Economics thinks the same regarding the difference between Scotland Kosovo – and by extension, Catalonia:

“When Kosovo declared independence from Serbia over four years ago, it was quickly recognised by most of the members of the European Union. However, five members – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain – refused to follow suit. This has led to suggestions that these countries may also refuse to accept Scottish independence and keep it out of the EU. This is very unlikely, for a number of reasons. For a start, the problem in the case of Kosovo is not the issue of secession. It is the unilateral way in which it was done. If a territory becomes independent with the consent of all the parties concerned, there is little reason to believe that these countries will oppose the move. The strongest evidence to support this view is their reaction to the independence of South Sudan, in July 2011. This occurred with the overt support of the Sudanese government, which was the first country in the world to recognise it. Within hours, the European Union issued a joint statement congratulating the new state on its independence. There was not a murmur of dissent from any of the five countries to this act of collective recognition. Even at an individual level, there seems little to suggest that any of them would block Scotland’s membership of the European Union.”

The idea that Spain would veto a recently independent Scotland’s membership of the EU, yet not veto the recently independent Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, or Slovenia – to say nothing of EU candidates Macedonia and Montenegro – seems ludicrous, especially considering that the people of Scotland have already been EU members for decades.

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FRANCE

Jean-Christophe Lagarde is the president of the Union of Democrats and Independents, the third largest party in France.

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POLAND

Jacek Saryusz-Wolski is the current Vice-President of the European People’s Party and former Vice-President of the European Parliament.

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SLOVAKIA

Here’s Robert Fico, the next President of the European Union, ensuring – according to the Scottish Daily Mail – that there can’t even be any discussions about Scotland retaining its EU membership while it’s still in the UK.

But on the other hand, here he is offering to preside over a successful bid for Scottish independence within the EU:

Lubomir Rehak is the Slovakian Ambassador to the UK, tweeting that in fact he was engaged in talks with Scottish Government ministers already:

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AUSTRIA

Hans Schelling is Finance Minister of the Austrian government. This week he said:

The Daily Record also recently reported the Austrian government’s honorary consul John Clifford saying:

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CZECH REPUBLIC

According to Channel 4 News reporter Alex Thomson, the Czech consul to the UK also gave his on-the-record backing to an independent Scotland in the EU a week ago:

The forces determined to keep Scotland in the UK at the expense of its membership of the EU are playing a classic abuser’s game. They’re trying to present the idea that the EU doesn’t care about Scotland, that they’ll either reject us despite being members for 40 years or implement horrendous austerity and punitive recriminations.

That’s a view not supported in Europe itself. As well as all the political examples in this article, a poll by YouGov Deutschland this week showed overwhelming public support across Europe for an independent Scotland’s EU membership, in every country polled.

The Unionist media and polity is trying to pretend that the EU will treat Scotland as horribly as the UK has. It’s a claim that so far is entirely at odds with the evidence.

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A version of this article first appeared on A Wilderness Of Peace.