The Scottish Prime Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, planned to organize a new consultation on October 19, 2023.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Can Scotland organize a new referendum on independence without the agreement of the United Kingdom? Prime Minister independentist Nicola Sturgeon has already unveiled the issue, “must Scotland be an independent country?”, And even the date, October 19, 2023, to which she intended to organize this new consultation. It remained to be seen whether this ballot, to which London is opposed, would be legal.
The British Supreme Court decided Wednesday, November 23, judging that any new independence referendum, launched without the agreement of the British government, would be illegal.
explaining his verdict, the president of the Supreme Court, Robert Reed, explained that the judges had unanimously concluded that such a ballot would have consequences on the Union of the United Kingdom and therefore requires an agreement of the central power in London.
a debate relaunched by Brexit
The Scottles have already refused 55 % in 2014 to leave the United Kingdom. But, in the eyes of the separatists of the Scottish National Party (SNP), in power in Edinburgh, Brexit, to which 62 % of the voters in the province have opposed, surrged since, changed the situation. They want Scotland to return to the European Union as an independent state.
But the central government in London firmly opposes any new independence referendum and considers that the 2014 vote has closed the debate for a generation.
Anticipating a judicial showdown with the government in London, Nicola Sturgeon had therefore taken the lead by seizing the Supreme Court, so that it determines if the Scottish Parliament had the power to legislate on the question without the agreement of the British government. The independence leader considers in particular that she has an “indisputable mandate” to organize such a ballot.
Anticipating a refusal of the Supreme Court, Nicola Sturgeon has already warned that she would make the next general elections in the United Kingdom, which must be held by January 2025, a de facto referendum on the question of the independence. During the local elections of 2021, she had promised to organize a legally valid referendum once turned the page of the Pandemic of Covid-19.