Nicola SturgeonScotland’s longest-serving prime minister and leader of the Independence Party Scottish National Party (Snp) gave her resignation, by surprise. “The time to leave is now, even if many in the country and in the party think it is too soon”, he said, formalizing the decision from his official residence in Edinburgh, which “comes from duty and love”. Sturgeon recalled “proudly” being the first woman to clothe the assignmentas well as the longest-serving leader of the Scotland; and he explained that he would remain in office until a successor was elected, saying he “strongly believes that my successor will lead Scotland to independence”. According to a source close to her cited by Bbc, Sturgeon she is simply tired and “sick” of the political responsibilities she has held for some time, but will probably remain in office until a successor is named. She was the first woman to be leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party and prime minister at the same time.
His exit from the scene, however, is part of a wider changing of the guard within the party, already marked recently by the resignation and replacement of Ian Blackford as group leader in the British Parliament of Westminster. In addition to the failure of the strategy of the same Sturgeon to obtain legally and constitutionally a bis popular vote on independence – which the central government of Londonthe last instance in the matter, refuses to grant – through an appeal that finally reached the Supreme Court: appeal rejected in past months and which has effectively pushed away for now every concrete perspective of close referendum rematch, despite the divisions on Brexit.
The profile – “Pointed and ruthless”, but also “capable of inspiring people” as described in 2015 by the Telegrapha newspaper certainly not tender towards the SNP, Sturgeon she has been at the helm of the Edinburgh government since September 2014, when she took over from her mentor Alex Salmond as prime minister after the electorate rejected independence. To the ballot55% of voters voted to stay in the United Kingdom and 45% to leave and she, always pro-independence, decided to lead the party in a difficult moment. It’s “the greatest privilege of my life,” she said at the time.
Born on July 19, 1970 a IrvineIn the North Ayrshiregrew up during what she called “the dark days of the era Thatcher“. She joined the SNP at 16 in the wake of the campaign for nuclear disarmament, she studied law at the University of Glasgow before working as a lawyer. In 1992, the year she graduated, she became Scotland’s youngest candidate in the general election. She was not elected and she too failed in a subsequent bid in 1997. Her entry into full-time politics came when she was elected to the new Scottish Parliament in 1999. His first big challenge at the government she arrived as deputy prime minister and health secretary when swine flu was declared pandemic. He then took on the role of “Yes Minister”, overseeing the planning of the independence referendum.
Convinced pro-European, after the Brexit and with 62% of Scots wanting to stay in the EU, Sturgeon advanced the possibility of not granting parliamentary consent to the will expressed by London. And he explored all options to protect Scotland’s place in the European Union. His SNP party asserted itself in the local elections of May 2021, but did not reach the absolute majority that would have given independence supporters more strength to re-advance their demand for a referendum on secession from the United Kingdom.