蘇格蘭民族主義者尋求再次舉行獨立公投

Scotland’s first minister took a step closer Monday to breaking up the United Kingdom by announcing she intends to begin the legal process of holding a new independence referendum for Scots.

At a news conference in Edinburgh, Nicola Sturgeon said it is the "right thing” to give Scots an opportunity to express their opinion following Brexit, last year’s vote by Britain to leave the European Union. In her speech, Sturgeon, whose Scottish National Party is the largest party north of the English border, said she wasn't prepared to “do nothing” while Brexit threatened Scotland’s economy and its links with Europe.

Coming in the wake of last week’s electoral surge by Sinn Fein nationalists in Northern Ireland assembly elections, Sturgeon’s announcement, although not a surprise, adds to the ramifications of the Brexit vote, which Britain’s Conservative government is struggling to contain.

Scotland’s first minister, who heads a minority government, said she wants the vote to take place between autumn 2018 and spring 2019, arguing the British parliament in Westminster had become more assertive since the Brexit vote. She said Britain’s Conservative prime minister, Theresa May, had failed to consult Scotland before deciding on a hard break with the EU, which will see Britain not only end its political membership in the European bloc but will also see it exit Europe’s single market with major economic consequences.

In last year’s Brexit vote, Scots voted by a 62-38 percent margin to remain in the EU. After the vote, Sturgeon said Brexit constituted a “significant and a material change of the circumstances,” thereby justifying a second independence referendum. Scotland elected to remain a part of the United Kingdom in a September 2014 referendum, which was then billed by Sturgeon as a “once in a lifetime vote.”

Sturgeon will seek the authority for the independence referendum next week from Scotland’s parliament, but, the final say has to come from the Westminster parliament.蘇格蘭首席部長星期一宣佈，她計劃爲舉行新的獨立公投開始法律程序，這使得蘇格蘭離脫離英國更近一步。

在愛丁堡的一個新聞發佈會上，斯特金表示，去年英國投票脫歐後，讓蘇格蘭人有機會表達他們的意見是“正確的”。斯特金在講話中說，英國脫歐威脅到蘇格蘭的經濟及其與歐洲的聯繫，她不會“什麼都不做”。斯特金領導的蘇格蘭民族黨是英國邊界以北最大的政黨。

在上週北愛爾蘭議會選舉中新芬黨民族主義者的席位激增後，斯特金做出上述宣佈儘管不出意外，但仍增加了英國脫歐投票的後果。英國保守黨政府正在努力控制這些後果。

身爲蘇格蘭首席部長的斯特金領導一個少數派政府，她表示，希望在2018年秋季至2019年春季之間舉行公投。她認爲英國議會自從脫歐投票以來變得更加堅決。她說，英國保守黨首相特雷莎·梅在決定硬性脫歐之前，沒有與蘇格蘭進行磋商。英國將不僅結束其在歐盟的政治成員身份，還將退出歐洲的單一市場並承擔其帶來的重大經濟後果。

在去年的脫歐投票中，蘇格蘭人以62-38％的票數贊成留在歐盟。表決後，斯特金表示，英國脫歐是一個“重大和實質的變化”，因此有理由舉行第二次獨立投票。蘇格蘭在2014年9月的全民投票中贊成留在英國，當時斯特金稱那是一次“一生中只有一次”的投票。

斯特金下週將向蘇格蘭議會申請，圍繞獨立舉行全民公決，但最後還是要由英國議會做出決定。