The Scottish leader regrets that Parliament has given a voice to those who saw the sexual harassment complaints as part of a “conspiracy”
MADRID, Apr 12. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Scotland’s chief minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has been confident this Monday with the possibility of holding a second referendum if the Scots so decide by electing a pro-independence party in the upcoming elections on May 6, before which London ” it cannot be interposed. “
“If people vote for a party that says, ‘when the time is right, there should be an independence referendum’, they can’t get in the way and I don’t think that’s what will happen,” Sturgeon told the newspaper. ‘The Guardian’.
Sturgeon has also been “quite certain” that the alternative that the Scottish National Party (SNP) manages to carry out within the Holyrood Parliament a bill to hold a referendum will not be necessary.
It is an eleven-point plan presented earlier this year, in which Sturgeon announced that he would work to announce a new referendum if there was a majority of his party within Holyrood after the local elections, in which other pro-independence formations will attend. like the Greens or the Dawn, of former SNP leader Alex Salmond.
However, and although Sturgeon appreciates that the talks with London have advanced in this regard, the UK Government refused to grant the section 30 order required to hold a legal referendum.
“People will always question that due to the supposed position of the United Kingdom Government,” emphasized the Scottish leader, who is committed to holding the consultation for 2023, although she has always qualified, “being guided by the realities” that mark the situation of the pandemic.
“If you are someone who voted ‘no’ in 2014 and because of Brexit or other issues, now you have an open mind to independence – and I know a lot of these people – and you hear someone say that they think they can sweep in his path to independence despite public opinion, I would think, ‘maybe I don’t want to get involved in this anymore,’ “he has speculated about the undecided.
In total, the three pro-independence parties would add 79 seats within a Parliament that make up 129 representatives and that would have only 24 deputies from the Conservative Party – seven less than in the 2016 elections – and another 20 from the Labor Party – four less. -.
Sturgeon’s SNP could win 65 seats, one above the majority it needs to run smoothly, while the Greens, also pro-independence, would get eight representatives, while Salmond’s Alba would get six, according to a recent poll for British media.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT DURING THE GOVERNMENT OF SALMOND
Sturgeon has also addressed other issues during his interview for ‘The Guardian’, such as his recent graceful exit from a vote of no confidence presented by the Conservatives, who accused him of having knowingly lied to Parliament in an investigation against his predecessor, Alex Salmond, in relation to some episodes of sexual harassment.
Salmond was accused in 2018 by several SNP workers and other public officials during his time at the head of the Scottish Government between 2007 and 2014. He was finally acquitted in the courts, who also declared the investigation that the SNP carried out against him illegal.
Although Sturgeon has assured that he will “never” question that the courts decided to acquit Salmond, he has also wondered about the “doubts” that someone who “was accused of serious misconduct towards several women” may bring with him and that during the process Penalty against him “seemed to suggest that he had not behaved in the best way” with them.
“He admitted something that I think was deeply inappropriate and he has never really considered that, he has never thought about it and he has been prepared to say, ‘I’m sorry, I will not do it again in the future,'” he said.
“If you are a woman in Scotland in the last year, what you have witnessed is an entire political class and an investigation of Parliament that sometimes allows and amplifies the complaints of those who say that it was all a conspiracy, and question the reasons why women denounced, “he lamented.
Sturgeon has also recognized that “it is very difficult for anyone in the Government” to assimilate the complaints of some of these women who described a certain “complicity” during these alleged episodes of abuse, for which he feels “a very strong personal responsibility” to try regain the trust of all those people who felt unprotected.
“I was in that government and although part of what I am hearing now was not what I experienced at that time, that does not mean that it had not happened, that it was not real,” he explained.
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