France 24
Scotland: when Brexit and Covid-19 give food for thought to separatists
While the transition period guaranteeing close ties between the United Kingdom and the European Union ends on December 31 at midnight, Scotland is preparing to undergo a Brexit which it neither voted nor negotiated. The Scottish Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, wants to take the opportunity to provoke a second referendum on independence. After the UK’s exit from the European Union, are we heading towards Scotland leaving the UK? United ? In any case, this is the wish of Nicola Sturgeon. On the announcement of the agreement finally reached between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the post-Brexit relationship, the Scottish separatist Prime Minister relaunched the debate on the organization of a second referendum for the independence of Scotland. She intends to capitalize on the discontent over Brexit and the British mismanagement of the Covid-19 to see the ‘yes’ prevail. ‘It is time to chart our own future as an independent European nation,’ Nicola Sturgeon tweeted stressing that “no deal can ever compensate for what Brexit takes away from us” and that “Brexit is happening against the will of the people of Scotland.” In the 2016 referendum on leaving the European Union, 62% of Scots had indeed voted for the “Remain”, that is to say against Brexit. Later, Boris Johnson, like his predecessor Theresa May, denied Scotland any say in the matter.The Brexit argument, voted and piloted by London to the detriment of Edinburgh, allowed the independence leaders to win weight. As a sign of growing popular support, in December 2019 the Scottish National Party won 49 of Scotland’s 59 seats in the UK House of Commons, with many Scots seeing re-joining the EU as an argument for a independent nation. Like Henry Gray, a young man of 29 who works in an association, the 2016 referendum, which led to Brexit, led him to lean for autonomy. “It would be good to still be able to be part of the EU,” he told AFP, “I hope we would be invited to come back” to the European club. The long Brexit negotiation has weakened in opinion the merits of the United Kingdom, “said John Curtice, British political scientist and professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, interviewed by Foreign Policy.” For a significant number of people in Scotland, independence within of the EU has become more attractive than being part of a United Kingdom outside the EU “, he continues Covid-19 has increased mistrust of London Brexit is not the only reason for disenchantment between the ‘Scotland and London: Handling the Covid-19 epidemic has further widened the gap. With more than 68,000 dead, the UK is one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe. The country has paid the price Lightness with which Boris Johnson took the measure of the pandemic. When the first cases of coronavirus are detected in Great Britain, Boris Johns we even boast at the beginning of March after a visit to the hospital: “I shook everyone’s hands.” He was slow to decree confinement, contracted the virus himself and was close to death. The UK is one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of mortality, with polls still showing 74% of Scots are happy with their Prime Minister’s handling of the crisis, only 19% to consider that Boris Johnson also did a good job. “Even though the health record is not good either at home. The leader of the Scottish national party has returned the image of a leader who knows what she is done “, notes Richard Place, permanent correspondent for France Culture in London. “This feeling undoubtedly contributed a lot to the desire for independence of the Scots. All the polls indicate it, if the vote took place today, Scotland would leave the United Kingdom.” Nicola Sturgeon wants to drive the point home with the The Scottish Prime Minister intends to take advantage of the ascendancy over Boris Johnson in public opinion and make it grow. She did not wait for the 1,246-page EU-UK trade relationship agreement to be released to criticize it and point the finger at what Scotland will lose: “Our people will be less secure. and he will lose his right to work, study and live elsewhere in Europe, “she said lambasting” another example of a Conservative government leading Scotland in the wrong direction. “On the very sensitive issue of the fishing, she accused Boris Johnson of “selling Scottish fishing again”. “Promises they knew they could not keep were broken,” she said. She also accused the British government of neglecting Scottish farmers, especially potato growers, excluded in the post-Brexit trade agreement. Nicola Sturgeon also lambasted the decision to leave the European Erasmus exchange program and replace it with a global program. The Prime Minister denounced a “cultural vandalism”. Remains to force London to authorize the holding of a second referendum on independence, after that of 2014 which had seen the “no” imposed by a short head. The separatists are betting on a victory next May in the local legislative elections, to force Boris Johnson to organize it. At the end of November, Nicola Sturgeon called for her in 2021.
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