Scotland: Nicola Sturgeon, the indestructible Prime Minister

Outgoing Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, May 7, 2021. AFP - ANDY BUCHANAN

Text by: Assa Samaké-Roman Follow

6 mins

The Scottish National Party's (SNP) fourth victory in the local parliamentary elections on Saturday 8 May bolstered its leader, Nicola Sturgeon, in his drive to lead Scotland to independence.

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" 

Who among you is competing in these elections to become Prime Minister of Scotland

?"

 "

On April 27, among the five leaders of the main parties present in the third televised debate for the Scottish parliamentary elections, considered to be the most important since the devolution (the statute granting powers of the British Parliament to the Scottish Parliament), only one hand is raised : that of Nicola Sturgeon, outgoing Prime Minister, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), in power since 2007.

This is what made these Scottish Parliament elections extraordinary: the winners were known in advance. It was certain that Nicola Sturgeon would remain, barring a cataclysm, Prime Minister. The issue was whether, despite the Scottish electoral system which is not planned for, she would manage to win the two seats she needed to obtain an absolute majority of 65 MPs on her own, or whether she would need the support of the Greens , who have just won 8 seats, 2 more than in 2016. Verdict: with 64 elected, the SNP narrowly misses the absolute majority, but increases its number of seats and votes, in elections which saw the participation jump 10 points. The consequences of this strengthened independence majority (72 elected pro-independence) will be important not only for Scotland,but also for the future of the United Kingdom, with the prospect of a new vote for independence by the end of 2023, which Boris Johnson's conservative government intends to block, regardless of the verdict of the ballot box.

Nicola Sturgeon thinks it would be unacceptable for the Tories to go against the will of the Scots expressed at the ballot box, even though there was already a referendum in 2014, where Scotland chose to remain in the Kingdom -United. But a lot has changed since then: Brexit, which the Scots were opposed to, and the semi-autonomous government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, raised the urge for self-determination in public opinion, giving the native from Ayrshire (south-west of Scotland), activist for the independence cause since her adolescence, a new opportunity to rekindle the flame.

However, this is not her immediate priority, she argues in the face of her opponents who fear that this independence project will distract her from the heavy task of ending the health crisis and initiating an economic rebound. Above all, she says she offers " 

serious leadership for serious times

 ", highlighting her years of experience and the fact that she was in charge of Scotland during the pandemic.

Member of Parliament since the creation of the decentralized Parliament in 1999, then Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister following the defeat of the independence camp in 2014, the 50-year-old elected representative of Glasgow Southside, one of the most multicultural constituencies in the country, enjoys an 

insolent popularity

.

Not only in Scotland, but also in the rest of the UK, far ahead of Boris Johnson.

Wherever she goes, passers-by never fail to take a selfie with her, and cups,

candles

, posters and other objects to her glory abound on the internet ... which contrasts with the apparent reserve of this avid reader , a devouring hobby that she willingly shares, between two political tweets, on social networks.

A year of political instability

Yet the year leading up to these elections was difficult for the outgoing Prime Minister. His critics blame him for the heavy human toll of the pandemic, with more than 10,000 deaths from Covid-19. Scottish management is however perceived by citizens as more prudent and more humane than that of England, and Nicola Sturgeon, a lawyer by training, was able to demonstrate the excellence of her communication during daily press briefings where she gave the right and bad news related to the health situation. His opponents accuse him of having used this crisis to his political advantage. According to Sturgeon, it is because the citizens “ 

realized the advantage of being autonomous in our decision-making, that things might work better if we had more autonomy, and drew their own conclusions

 ”.

Paradoxically, it was at the time when the desire for independence that the independence movement was most divided. The Prime Minister, known for her prudence, has been criticized for what some in her camp see as procrastination, indecision, even a lack of desire or courage to hold a second independence referendum, leaving to do without the consent of London. She has also been accused of allowing herself to be distracted from the goal of self-determination by societal issues: the Prime Minister, who claims to be proudly feminist and anti-racist, has drawn the wrath of a fringe of her party for defending the rights of transgender people.

The peak of this eventful year was reached last March, when Nicola Sturgeon's career was threatened with an early end following

the parliamentary inquiry

into how the Scottish government has handled sexual harassment complaints against former Prime Minister Alex Salmond. Accused sometimes of being at the center of a plot to dismiss her predecessor, who had been her friend and mentor since the early 1990s, sometimes of trying to cover up the accusations against her, the head of the Scottish government replied: " 

I refuse to follow the age-old model of letting a man use his status to get what he wants

 ." The two no longer speak to each other, but Sturgeon, visibly affected by this political and friendly break, says in a

interview with the

New Yorker

 : “ 

Apart from my parents, and now my husband, he has been the most influential and important person in my adult life.

Someone, and I don't want to use that term too lightly, that I liked, in a way

 ”.

While his dream of independence seems at hand, Sturgeon could, paradoxically, be the strength and weakness of the movement: his stature makes the SNP and self-determination attractive, but the fate of this gigantic political project seems to be inexorably, even too linked to his personality.

Nicola Sturgeon will be Prime Minister, but she is not eternal.

If she could have succeeded Alex Salmond in an obvious way, it is difficult to see, for the moment, who will come after her.

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