The independence of Scotland has been a concern for Prime Minister Sturgeon since school times when there was no territorial government. Now he has aligned his election campaign with it – it’s popular, but risky.

There is a running theme in Nicola Sturgeon’s life: Scotland. Even as a teenager in the eighties, she felt the tremendous power of England: Scots voted for Labor and Margaret Thatcher, the current Scottish government head, said on a BBC broadcast.

Christoph Prosli
ARD-Studio London

As a young woman, the real life around her shaped her and inspired her to go into politics. “At the time, my friends and I knew that if your father lost his job, he would never get another job,” she recalls. “And the school I went to was not the kind of school that paved the way for university. It made me feel like there was no job hope for us.”

politically inclined students

Sturgeon grew up near Glasgow. When Nikola was born in 1970, the parents were 17 and 21, the eldest of three daughters. Father was an electrician, mother a dental assistant. A youth in the Thatcher era, Duran Duran accompanied Kate Bush and the Frosties nightclub, as she once said in an interview.

She was already interested in politics at school: “Long before I joined the SNP party, I was fascinated by the world around me and what was happening there. Not only Scottish politics. Me in South Africa was also interested, for example,” he said as he began his political education. “A teacher was very helpful. I was able to form my own opinion. He was one of the most valuable things to me.”

First candidacy without success

Sturgeon studied law in Glasgow, while still at university she joined an organization that campaigns for the independence of Scotland. She later joined the Scottish National Party, or SNP, and worked as a lawyer. The party has strong social policies and the independence of Scotland. Sturgeon ran as a candidate for several regional and local elections, but was initially unsuccessful.

In 1999 Sturgeon was successful in entering the newly created Scottish Parliament. In 1998 Tony Blair left the competencies in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales from London through a so-called “transfer”. Since then there have been regional governments for health, schools, housing policy and tourism.

Salmond. career in team with

Sturgeon pursued a career in the years that followed. Soon on the side of then SNP boss Alex Salmond. He resigned in 2014 after a losing referendum for Scottish independence. At that time 55 percent of Scots voted against independence. Because they were told they would jeopardize the reconciliation of the Union, the United Kingdom, Sturgeon says today. He later argued: Scotland had been expelled from the European Union against his will. So, in the opinion of the SNP, the question arises again.

Sturgeon took over the party’s presidency in 2014 and became the “First Minister”, i.e. Prime Minister of Scotland. In 2016, the SNP missed an absolute majority in the elections. This year, after Brexit, Scottish independence is at the center of the SNP’s campaign: by international standards, Scotland is a wealthy and economically strong country that cannot realize its potential because the government in London has misdirected it. Sturgeon said earlier this week pulled off a panel discussion.

The SNP is likely to get an absolute majority. Hosting a referendum will not be that easy. The government in London would have to agree: Prime Minister Boris Johnson made clear that in 2014 there was already one. With this justification, he rejects the other for years to come. Sturgeon is not affected by this. If the SNP gets a strong result, there will be a tailwind for its claim.