On the twisty road of Scottish politics, Nicola Sturgeon has been like a Lamborghini compared to the cars of her Conservative, Labor, Liberal rivals and the SNP itself (with the exception of Alex Salmond's Ferrari, which burned earlier). But even the most powerful of cars eventually runs out of gas.
In the eight years that he has been at the head of the country, Sturgeon has won for the SNP all the general, regional, municipal and European elections, and has achieved that the Scottish National Party (sovereignty) exercises a virtual monopoly on politics. However, he leaves without having been able to make his dream of independence come true. It is unpredictable what the Scots would vote in a second referendum, but neither the British government nor the Courts are willing to allow it (they saw the ears of the wolf in 2014 and do not want to play Russian roulette again).
Sturgeon (52 years old, born in Irvine, County Ayrshire) grew up in Great Britain during the Thatcherite revolution of the 1970s, and it was there that her interest in politics arose. She joined the SNP as a militant at just sixteen, and at twenty-one she ran for a seat for the first time, losing the Glasgow Shettleston constituency to Labour. After graduating and practicing as a lawyer, her big break was the granting of home rule to Scotland and the creation of the Holyrood Parliament, which she joined within the SNP's regional lists. With her party in opposition, she was responsible for the Education and Health portfolios.
The great leap occurred in 2004 when Alex Salmond, who had left the leadership, decided to retake it and named her his number two, eventually entrusting her with the campaign for independence in the 2014 referendum. After the defeat of sovereignism in that referendum, Sturgeon took over without opposition. But when the former prime minister was accused of rape and sexual abuse of several employees (he would later be declared innocent), the relationship between the two became toxic and went from adoration to hatred, which is what currently prevails.
The leader was the subject of an investigation into whether she had lied to Holyrood Parliament about when she first learned of the charges against Salmond, and whether she had interfered in the case to try to get him convicted. His role was never entirely clear, but a former Irish judge gave him the benefit of the doubt, ruling that if there were falsehoods they were by mistake and not premeditated, thus narrowly escaping a humiliating and forced resignation. .
The overwhelming electoral victories (the SNP has come to have 56 of the 59 Scottish seats in Westminster) and Sturgeon's magnificent skills as a communicator and strategist, evident in the pandemic, have covered deficiencies such as the terrible state of health and education in Scotland, rising drug use, near-chronic obesity, one of the lowest life expectancies in the developed world, deteriorating infrastructure, rising inequality between rich and poor, and a crisis in the cost of the life that a few months ago brought the dustpans and street sweepers on strike, and made cities like Edinburgh Glasgow look like a rat-infested pigsty.
The first doubts about Sturgeon's possible resignation arose at the end of 2021, when, in an interview with Vogue magazine, he spoke of writing his memoirs, perhaps having a role in an international organization like the UN, spending more time with family, and being (along with her husband Peter Murrell, who is the chief executive of the SNP, six years her senior) foster parents. She was not the tone of a leader ready to take on the world, but of an old lioness a little tired of battling in the jungle of Scottish and British politics.
Difficulties in advancing the cause of independence have taken their toll. Because although the polls on the eventual result of a new referendum are contradictory and give the same advantage of six or seven points to yes than to no, what they all agree on is that the majority of Scots do not want a consultation now, but more forward. Before they said that after the pandemic, now that when the war in Ukraine ends and the economic crisis and the cost of living are overcome. In the list of concerns it occupies only eighth place, after health, education, inflation, drugs, care for the elderly, child care, the evolution towards green energy, the construction of affordable housing, innovation technology, the creation of low ozone emission zones... In other words, possibly sovereignty, but in an indefinite future.
A couple of years ago, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Ross, took a fifty pound bet that Sturgeon would not be Prime Minister in 2026, and everyone laughed at him, said he had wasted his money. But it turns out that he has won the bet. You never know.
