Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a press conference in Edinburgh on February 15. JANE BARLOW / AFP
A twist in Scottish politics. Nicola Sturgeon, Prime Minister for eight years after serving as Deputy Prime Minister for seven years, announced her resignation on Wednesday 15 February. While her tenure ran until 2026, she will step down once a successor has been chosen.
The surprise is total. Despite a very turbulent period in recent weeks, Ms Sturgeon remained the undisputed leader of politics, the most popular, ahead of all her rivals and opponents; and his party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), is overwhelmingly ahead in the polls. She just feels like she doesn’t have the energy and enthusiasm to keep going.
Red suit, restrained emotions, the Scottish Prime Minister put above all personal reasons to announce her decision to leave her to the press on Wednesday. “Putting all your energy into this position is the only way to do it. The country deserves it. But the truth is that one person cannot do this for very long. For me there is a risk that it will be too long. A prime minister never gives up, especially during this time when privacy is virtually non-existent. Even things that seem obvious, like drinking coffee with friends or going for a walk alone, become very difficult. »
Nicola Sturgeon also denounced the “brutality” of modern political life, a criticism that echoes the resignation of Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, who also left office early on January 19, saying “not enough left in the tank to have”. .
A controversial project
It’s been “a few weeks” since Ms Sturgeon claims she started having doubts. “I could have continued for a few months, six months, maybe a year, but over time I could have put less energy into this work. I owe it to my country to say it now. The day before, on Tuesday, the funeral of a veteran of the struggle for independence, Allan Angus, who died at the age of 89, where she was in the company of a large number of activists from the Scottish National Party, the party she leads, seems convinced have to take the plunge. “I am a human being in addition to being a politician. »
Politically, the past few weeks have been particularly difficult for the prime minister. She passed legislation making it easier for trans people to earn a gender recognition certificate. The majority of Scottish people did not support the project. The heated debate culminated in a scandal with the blocked decision to lock up a man convicted of rape but claiming to be a woman in a women’s prison. In addition, an investigation is underway into the funding of the SNP and the role of her husband, the party leader. Nicola Strugeon sweeps all of this away, remembering that she has faced many other crises in the past.
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