(Glasgow) Nearly 2,000 supporters of Scottish independence marched in Glasgow on Saturday to try to breathe new life into their movement, considerably weakened a few months before the British legislative elections.
The goal of self-determination has been in decline since the surprise resignation last year of the charismatic Nicola Sturgeon, who had been at the head of local government for nine years. Since then, his movement, the Scottish National Party (SNP), in power in the territory, has suffered one setback.
In the latest setback, the husband of the ex-leader and former director general of the SNP, Peter Murrell, was indicted on Thursday for embezzlement in the investigation into the party’s finances.
This investigation targets the use of donations of 600,000 pounds (around 1 million Canadian dollars) collected in recent years with a view to organizing a new independence referendum.
But nothing to dampen the determination of the demonstrators present on Saturday in Glasgow, among whom was the current Prime Minister, Humza Yousaf.
PHOTO ANDY BUCHANAN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf
“I have supported independence all my life […] I think we should be able to run our country the way we want,” defended Jetta Becker, 62, who works in education.
“We have a government that we did not vote for,” also points out Thomas MacArthur, a 60-year-old security guard and SNP supporter, “if we could keep our tax money, we could use it to support Scottish “.
Humza Yousaf has pledged to continue the campaign for independence in the British general election, which is due to take place in the autumn.
He promised the SNP would seek “a mandate for independence negotiations” with the UK government if it wins at least 29 of Scotland’s 57 MP seats. He also hopes that Scotland, if it manages to become independent, will rejoin the European Union as quickly as possible.
Competition from Labor
In 2014, Scotland voted 55% against independence in a referendum. But Nicola Sturgeon, who had then established herself as one of the leading figures of the movement, put the issue back on the table in 2016 after Brexit.
According to her, Scotland had to leave the United Kingdom after a massive vote by its inhabitants in favor of remaining in the European Union.
This leader’s influence and communication skills during the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting with the chaos in London under the leadership of Boris Johnson, pushed support for independence above 50% in 2021.
After several refusals from London to organize another referendum, Nicola Sturgeon took the case to the highest court in the United Kingdom. But in November 2022, the judges ruled that only the British government was able to authorize such a vote to take place.
The Scottish leader tendered her resignation shortly after, and support for independence fell to between 41% and 43%, according to three opinion polls taken in April 2024.
She was then herself interviewed by the police in June 2023 in the file on the finances of the SNP, then released without any charges being brought against her.
The SNP currently has 43 MPs in Scotland, but it is likely to lose several seats to a Labor Party on the rise and which appears in a strong position to enter Downing Street.
Some Scots also believe that this party, positioned on the left and allied with the environmentalists in government, focuses too much on independence and not enough on the purchasing power crisis which worries voters.
The newspaper The Herald recently estimated in an editorial that this was a “dangerous” disengagement, and that “this is the reason why the SNP is sliding towards defeat in the general elections”.