Referendum in Scotland | A showdown between London and Edinburgh takes shape

(London Edinburgh) A standoff has erupted between the British government of the Conservative Boris Johnson and the Scottish Prime Minister, libertarian Nicola Sturgeon, who urges him to hold a self-determination referendum in support of his party’s victory in the local election.

Pauline FROISSART
France Media Agency

Boris Johnson, who has the final word on whether or not to authorize this referendum, strongly opposes it. If M. The Scottish National Party (SNP)^{to me} Sturgeon tries to legislate for a referendum but if the British government does not cooperate, the conflict can be resolved in justice.

“That would be absurd and utterly reprehensible,” M. he said^{to me} Sturgeon on BBC Sunday. If this happens, “it would mean that a Conservative government has refused to respect the democratic will of the Scottish people,” she warned.

The referendum is “irresponsible” for Boris Johnson. The Tory leader believes the priority is to tackle the economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 127,000 in the UK and brought the country to its knees.

He did M. invited to^{to me} Sturgeon to “work together” to address their “common challenges”, inviting them to meet with other heads of local governments.

During the traditional speech of Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday, who will present the government’s national policy program in parliament, “We will move further to unite [le pays] And move up a gear,” the Conservative leader announced on Twitter.

“Instead of focusing on what divides, let’s focus on this,” said Michael Gove, the minister responsible for coordinating government action, in an interview on Skynews Sunday.

“Choose Your Future”

Nicola Sturgeon agrees with Boris Johnson on one point: an end to the pandemic is a priority. But she told the BBC on Sunday that “after the crisis” she intended to “give the Scottish people the opportunity to choose their future in a referendum”.

Such consultation had already taken place in 2014. At the time, 55% of Scots chose to live in the UK. Based on this recent vote, Boris Johnson argues that such a referendum can only happen “once in a generation”.

However, the SNP believed Brexit was a game-changer, with 62% of Scots opposing it. The goal of the SNP is for Scotland to join the European Union as an independent state.

Michael Gove argued that unlike the 2011 local election, which saw a major victory for the separatists and a referendum held 3 years later, this time “the SNP did not get a majority”.

According to the final results announced on Saturday, two days after the election, the SNP did not actually have an absolute majority of one seat, gaining 64 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament. However, it may align itself with the Greens, also in favor of seceding from the United Kingdom, which gained eight seats.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross, whose party has elected 31 MPs, congratulated him on Twitter for “preventing the SNP majority”.

For election expert John Curtis, “one of the reasons” for the failed targeting of the separatists is that Conservative and Labor voters concerned about the future of the UK have found themselves strategically placed to try to prevent the independence SNP from winning locally. Shown ready to vote. .

For this professor, “the elections have shown the extent to which Scotland is politically divided”, he explained to the BBC.

However, the SNP could align with the Greens, also in favor of seceding from the United Kingdom, which gained eight seats.

“That gives us two parties in parliament that support independence, which will take this outcome as a mandate for a second referendum,” Lynn Benny of the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Aberdeen told AFP.

“The problem is that the Conservative government in Westminster will refuse in the short term. So we have this debate on the demand for a democratic referendum, but this legal position that prevents the referendum from happening because at the end of the day it is up to the British government. that he provides it,” said Lynn Benny, “very hard to predict how it might be solved.”