Gold leading way to get republican Scotsman to become European national (8)
I believe the answer is:
austrian
'european national' is the definition.
'gold leading way to get republican scotsman' is the wordplay.
'gold' becomes 'au' ('Au' can be a synonym of 'gold').
'leading way' becomes 'st' (I am not sure about the 'leading' bit.**).
'to get' says to put letters next to each other.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'scotsman' becomes 'ian'.
'au'+'st'+'r'+'ian'='AUSTRIAN'
'to become' is the link.
(Other definitions for austrian that I've seen before include "Hitler's nationality pre-1925" , "Hot spicy pod" , "Person from Vienna, say" , "European in an Asian rut" , "Mozart's nationality" .)