Prime Minister Sturgeon’s Scottish Nationalists (SNP) have won the regional elections, but the party is not getting an absolute majority in the Scottish Parliament. The BBC reports this on the basis of a forecast. A majority in parliament has signed a new independence referendum, with the support of the Green Party.
The Scots went to the polls on Thursday to elect a new parliament (129 seats). The SNP will probably have 63 seats, two too few for a majority.
The party went into the elections with a promise to hold another referendum on Scottish split from the United Kingdom as soon as possible. In the previous referendum, in 2014, 55 percent voted for a longer stay in the United Kingdom.
That was two years before the Brexit referendum that led to the UK’s exit from the European Union. Sturgeon wants an independent Scotland to return to the European Union.
Block voter pledge
British Prime Minister Johnson has already said not to allow such a new consultation. SNP leader Sturgeon calls it absurd “that others try to block promises to the voter of the winning party”.
She reiterated that she wants to go for a new independence referendum. It is not yet clear how she intends to do this. But together with the Green Party, which is also in favor of a new referendum, the SNP has a clear majority in the new parliament. The Greens are in the forecast of the BBC at nine seats.
Beloved leader
The SNP has ruled Scotland continuously since 2007. Leader Nicola Sturgeon is loved by the population. She is one of the most popular politicians in the United Kingdom, wrote correspondent Arjen van der Horst earlier.
The Scottish nationalists of the SNP, a center-left party, like to compare Scotland to small, progressive nations like Denmark or Sweden. They want a country with a broad social safety net, stronger employee rights, the abolition of tuition fees and free senior shelters. In their eyes, the Scots are radically different from the free market thinkers in conservative England.
The opponents of independence point to the large amount of tax money that has been flowing from the British treasury to Scotland for decades. The Scots receive more financial aid per capita from London than the rest of the country. According to the unionists, Scotland is too small to be financially independent.
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