Nicola Sturgeon opened the work of the congress, this year held virtually due to covid-19 and dedicated to the question “who should have the choice of Scotland’s future?”.
Nicola Sturgeon’s statements go in the same direction as those he recently gave to the BBC, in which he did not exclude that the consultation on independence was “at the beginning of the new legislature, in May 2021”.
The SNP holds this 86th annual conference supported by the polls for the next regional elections, which will take place on 6 May next year and which Nicola Sturgeon considers to be “the most important elections in Scottish democracy”.
Since May, according to several surveys, the “yes” option has dominated Scottish society, reaching a historical record of 58% of the population in favor, according to IPSO Mori in October.
In the referendum on independence, held in 2014, the “no” won, with 55.3% of the votes, against 44.7% of the “yes”.
However, there is no “plan b” to avoid the veto that the United Kingdom has submitted to the question of independence.
“The conference could have been more interesting, but the motions that were presented for discussion were rejected by the party leadership,” said Angus MacNeil, deputy for the Hebrides in Westminster, criticizing the absence of an internal debate on policies for the realization of the new referendum.
The National Executive Committee refused to host this discussion on how to deal with a possible “no” in London, alleging the virtual logistics in which it takes place. Instead, there will be a National Assembly, convened by the party’s vice president, Keith Brown, on January 21.
Boris Johnson’s executive twice refused this year to hold a new referendum, first in early 2020, when Sturgeon requested the transfer of powers from section 30 of the 1998 Treaty of Scotland, and then when the secretary of state for Scotland , Alister Jack, said in an interview with the BBC that it would not happen “for the next 25 or 40 years”.
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