Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon resigns

The First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeonannounced Wednesday his resignationto general surprise, after eight years of power in which he was highly popular and a “very difficult” job between a pandemic, opposition to an independence referendum and a recent controversy.

The 52-year-old politician, who for years has led the fight for a second consultation on the self-determination of this British nation of 5.5 million inhabitants, assured that His resignation “is not a reaction to short-term pressure”but the conviction that “No individual should be dominant in a system for long.”

“In my mind and in my heart I know that the time has come, that it is the right time for me, for my party and for the country”, he stated at a press conference in Edinburgh.

“This work it is a privilege, but also very difficult” and “I am a human being as well as a politician”, she stressed, assuring that she had given this decision a lot of thought after putting her career before her personal life for three decades.

He will remain in office until his successor is appointed.accurate.

However, she will not leave politics, she stressed, because she remains committed to issues such as improving opportunities for young people and “obtaining independence.” “It is a cause to which I have dedicated my whole life and in which I believe,” she assured with a tired and circumspect face.

Scotland would again reject independence: poll

Self-determination referendum

The news came as a surprise to the entire country.

In January, following the shock resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Sturgeon said he was still “full of energy” and that she did not feel “close to” the time when she would have to leave.

Sturgeon became leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Home Rule government following the resignation of his predecessor and mentor Alex Salmond in 2014, after Scots voted 55% to remain in the UK.

Since then, he resumed the fight for independence, reinvigorated by Brexit, which was largely opposed by the Scots.

He defended calling a second referendum and before the refusal of the central executive of London went to justice.

The British Supreme Court ruled against it last year, and Sturgeon then promised to turn the next general election, due in January 2025 at the latest, into a referendum on the matter.

However, she was heavily criticized for this, even within the ranks of the SNP. “It is a decision that must be made by the SNP collectively and not just by me,” she said Wednesday.

British Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reacted soberly to his resignation by thanking him for his “long service” and wishing him “all the best for the future”.

Popularity and controversy

With very high levels of popularity for his successful management of the covid-19 pandemic, which contrasted with the chaotic policies of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Sturgeon accumulated electoral successes and obtained a new pro-independence majority in the regional Parliament together with environmentalists in May 2021.

But it was weakened by the approval last December of a law that facilitates the gender transition, allowing it from the age of 16 without the need for a medical diagnosis. This caused great controversy in feminist circles and was blocked by the Sunak executive in an unprecedented event.

44% of Scots declared themselves in favor of it in January, after this controversy, compared to 50% in October, according to data published on Wednesday by the YouGov polling institute.

Born in the industrial city of Irvine, southwest of Glasgow, to an electrician father and a nurse mother, Sturgeon joined the SNP at the age of 16, as vice-coordinator of youth.

Peter Murrell, her husband, is the party’s general manager. The couple, who have no children, met more than 20 years ago at a meeting of the youth of the SNP, of which Sturgeon became one of the first representatives in the Scottish Home Rule Parliament when it was formed in 1999.

A brilliant politician and lawyer by training feared by her opponents in both Edinburgh and London, Sturgeon championed a left-wing political agenda, advocating social policies that she felt had been abandoned by the Labor Party. (YO)