LONDON -

The nearly 100,000 members of the Scottish National Party (SNP) have begun voting for a new prime minister after the resignation of Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

3 candidates are competing for this position, and they are Minister of Health of Muslim origins Hamza Yusef, Treasury Secretary Kate Forbes, and Minister of Local Affairs Ash Reagan, but all expectations indicate that the competition between Youssef and Forbes will recede, and although they belong to the same party, they form two political lines on the opposite sides.

These elections will be historic par excellence. If Hamza Yusef wins, he will be the first Muslim prime minister in the history of Scotland and Europe. If Kate Forbes wins, she will be the youngest prime minister in the country's history, and her age does not exceed 32 years.

3 main files control the selection of the rules of the Scottish National Party for their new leader, which is the secession file from the United Kingdom, the issue of gay laws and sexual minorities, and the living crisis in the country.

The election of Hamza Yusuf to the prime minister will set a precedent in the history of Scotland and Europe, with the arrival of a Muslim figure to this position (Getty Images)

raging struggle

In the latest opinion poll conducted by Ipsos, regarding the candidate most likely to win the elections, a kind of discrepancy emerged between the orientation of the Scots in general, and the orientation of the voting bloc of the Scottish National Party in particular.

The poll revealed that Kate Forbes is ahead of Hamza Yusuf by 8 points regarding the opinion of Scottish citizens about their preferred candidate to win the premiership.

On the other hand, there is a convergence between the candidates regarding their voting intentions within the Scottish National Party, as 33% of party members revealed that they would vote for Hamzah Yusuf, compared to 32% for Kate Forbes.

Hamza Yusef enjoys strong support from party leader Nicola Sturgeon, who sees him as a continuation of her project, especially with regard to secession. On the other hand, Kate Forbes enjoys the confidence of the conservative bloc within the party.

It is expected that the three candidates will fail to obtain the required 50%, which means going to a second round of elections, with the exclusion of the candidate with the least votes in the first round.

Perversion and gender change

One of the paradoxes witnessed in these elections is the dominance of the issue of homosexuality and the law of gender change over the discussions between the candidates for the elections, especially after the British government used its veto power to overturn a law approved by the government of Nicola Sturgeon, which allows children at the age of 16 to change their gender without parental consent and without medical approval. .

While Hamza Youssef presents himself as a defender of the rights of sexual minorities and homosexuals, and the defense of same-sex marriage, his rival Kate Forbes stands in complete contrast, as she openly declared that she does not support same-sex marriage, as well as rejects the idea of ​​procreation outside marriage. It also rejects the law facilitating sex reassignment operations.

Kate Forbes draws her positions - in this case - from her upbringing and her receiving a conservative church education, which raised her popularity among the conservative bloc in Scotland, in exchange for the gay defense bodies announcing their support for Hamza Yusef.

Thus, the conflict between the two candidates turned into a struggle between a current that the Scottish press calls the "progressive current" represented by Hamza Yusuf, and the "conservative current" represented by Kate Forbes.

Hamza Youssef (right) pledges to secede from Britain as soon as possible, while Kate Forbes (third from the right) confirms the possibility of waiting for another 6 years (French)

doctrine of separation

As for the issue of secession from Britain, Hamza Yusuf moved to the maximum speed on the issue of secession when he announced - in the last electoral debate with the rest of the candidates - that if he reached the position of prime minister, he would announce the organization of early elections and guarantee an absolute majority of more than 60% in alliance with the party Greens, after which there will be a referendum on secession from Britain.

And Hamza Yusef has become the most stringent line in dealing with the issue of secession from the United Kingdom, on the condition that to achieve this he obtains the support of the majority of the Scots, while Kate Forbes says that she will seek secession, but when its conditions are mature, and she believes that the referendum can wait for the next 6 years without entering into an agreement. Confrontation with London now.

And if Hamza Yusuf manages to win and reach the premiership, he will thus have achieved a historic achievement as the first “Muslim” person to reach this position in all of Europe, to follow in the footsteps of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who entered history as the first British Prime Minister of origin. Asian.

Despite this, it seems that the comparison with Sunak's fate may be fraught with danger. During the competition between Rishi Sunak and Les Trass for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and although the party leadership was with Sunak, the bases chose Liz Trass at the expense of Sunak, due to ideological considerations driven by the tendency of the white person in preference. on "Alien".

Accordingly, Hamza Youssef may fall victim to the same mentality, especially if the confrontation between him and Kate Forbes recedes, as the bases may choose Kate despite the support of the leadership for Youssef.