“If she can’t rule Scotland, who can? Scottish separatists are looking for a new leader after the surprise resignation this week of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, which raises many questions about the future of their fight.
The announcement on Wednesday of his departure at the age of 52 due to a lack of energy leaves a huge void. In eight years in power, Nicola Sturgeon, who arrived after the victory of the “no” vote in the 2014 self-determination referendum, had succeeded in reviving her defeated camp and accumulating electoral success.
Who within the Scottish National Party (SNP) will now be able to carry the dream of Scottish independence against the Conservative government in London?
“There is no guarantee that the campaign will result in a leader who can increase support for independence. There is no clear successor. Among the possible suitors, there is not one who has demonstrated political and rhetorical talent like Sturgeon”, summarizes in the daily Times British political scientist John Curtice.
After a Supreme Court decision last year confirming London’s refusal to organize a new consultation – demanded by the SNP, which believes that Brexit has changed the game – Nicola Sturgeon called for the next British legislative elections to be the next year a “de facto referendum”, a controversial prospect in the SNP and among the electorate.
” Break “
A congress dedicated to the issue is due to take place next month, but some pro-independence officials are already calling for it to be postponed as polls indicate a drop in support for independence.
The SNP must “pause” the fight for Scottish independence in order to “give our new leader the opportunity and the space to define his vision”, thus estimated on the BBC the boss of the party in the British Parliament, Stephen Flynn.
SNP officials were due to meet on Thursday evening to work out the terms and timing of elections to find a successor to Ms Sturgeon. The last time such a vote took place, in 2004, the campaign lasted two and a half months.
But “if (Nicola Sturgeon) can’t rule Scotland, who can? asks the political magazine The Spectator. Potential suitors include Nicola Sturgeon’s deputy John Swinney, young finance minister Kate Forbes, health minister Humza Yousaf and former MP Angus Robertson.
With the approach of the legislative elections in the United Kingdom, some believe that the uncertainties over a new direction could make the business of the Labor Party, in force in the polls, but struggling in Scotland against the powerful SNP anchored on the left.
“It’s a very good thing for Labour. This means that the SNP will probably start to appear less relevant”, thus estimated in the daily The Guardian Blair McDougall, one of the leaders of the campaign against independence in 2014.
On the site PoliticoNicola McEwan, professor at the University of Edinburgh, tempers: “The SNP is a formidable electoral machine and it did not arrive there only thanks to Nicola Sturgeon”.
The latter announced her departure, explaining that she no longer had “the energy” to perform her role. Long popular, it was recently weakened by a controversial law allowing gender change from the age of 16 and without medical advice. In the aftermath, the imprisonment in a women’s facility of a transgender woman convicted of raping a woman before she transitioned caused outrage, putting her on the defensive.
The First Minister has indicated that she will remain in post until a new leader is appointed and that she will keep her post as a member of the Scottish Parliament until the next election due in 2026.