The Prime Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, stated that he hopes his country will become independent from the United Kingdom and return “soon” to the European Union (EU) after Brexit, which the majority of Scots opposed in a referendum.
“Now we are going through a hard Brexit against our will, at the worst moment, in the middle of a pandemic and an economic recession,” Sturgeon said on the website of his independence party SNP.
It did so two days after the UK’s departure from the EU was finally finalized.
In the 2016 referendum, the British were overwhelmingly in favor of Brexit, with 51.9% of the vote, but 62% of Scots rejected the idea of leaving the EU.
Sturgeon ratified his willingness to hold another referendum on Scottish independence, after in the last one, held in 2014, a 55% majority of Scots rejected that possibility.
The decision to call this referendum is an attribution of the British Prime Minister, Boris Johonson, who refusesAlthough an eventual broad victory for the SNP in the elections next May will increase the pressure on London to accept a new consultation, according to the AFP news agency.
In fact, now 58% of Scots are in favor of independence, according to a survey by the firm Savanta ComRes published by the Scotsman newspaper in mid-December.
“As an independent member of the EU, Scotland would be a partner and could build bridges, not just a bridge to build a stronger economy and a fairer society, but also a bridge to facilitate relations between the EU and the UK,” he said. Sturgeon.
“We did not want to leave and we hope to return soon as a full partner,” added the prime minister.
Source: Télam
–
