Here you have my latest article published by
Sermos Galiza analyzing the results of the #council17 and the panorama in Scotland for #GE17
Aquí tedes o meu último artigo publicado por Sermos Galiza analizando os resultados das eleccións locais e o panorama en Escocia para as #GE17 (do vindeiro 8 de xuño)
Artigo orixinal en galego / Original version in Galician language
Theresa May is poised to become Prime Minister-elect
of the United Kingdom and to see her leadership reinforced after calling for an
early election which she had repeated on several occasions, would not take
place until 2020.
But surveys were and still are favourable and
she wanted to take advantage of the ongoing crisis of the Labour Party, and to
try to achieve a mandate that enables her to carry out negotiations of Brexit
more comfortably.
On the other hand, she also wanted to test the
nationalism in Scotland, her greatest enemy, and to try to delegitimize the
official request by the Scottish Parliament for a new independence referendum
before Brexit is effective.
Theresa May urged Scots to send a clear message
against the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the local elections on 4th
May. The manifestos of the unionist parties, especially the Conservatives and
Labour, didn´t implement proposals on local issues but instead launched in unison
a single message: "No to a second independence referendum".
The result could not have been clearer. Forty-six
percent of the electorate exercised their right to vote, and 70 percent of them
opted for candidates of more progressive parties than the Tories. The Scottish
National Party (SNP) and the Scottish Green increased their number of councillors
with respect to what they had in 2012.
The Conservatives achieved a very good result
both in the rest of the UK, where they got the votes of UKIP which almost
disappeared; and also in Scotland, where they clearly gained from the remains
of the wreck that is Scottish Labour.
But the unionist propaganda machine which has
been working non-stop for many months, is determined to hide any success or
achievement of the Scottish Government on the state channels while providing
ample time for the intervention of more extreme voices which are favourable to
the Tories.
The often alleged bias of the BBC, which has
not decreased, reported these days less SNP councillors, comparing the results to
seats in 2007 and not with the previous election in 2012.
Right now, the SNP is the biggest party in
municipalities such as Glasgow, a traditional Labour stronghold for 40 years. This
is a huge accomplishment for the party led by Nicola Sturgeon, which was also
the most voted party in the vast majority of the regions of Scotland.
However, the guidelines are clear from London:
the SNP must be halted at all costs to inflict a major defeat in the general
elections of June 8th.
In the previous general elections of 2015, the
SNP won 56 of 59 seats. Some surveys predict that the Tories now with the help
of tactical unionist voting could get some more seats than just the Secretary
of State for Scotland, David Mundell.
The SNP is already campaigning in the streets
and with the Greens, colleagues in the battle against Brexit and in favour of a
second independence referendum, they are already working on an implicit progressive
alliance. In fact, the Scottish Green Party has presented only three candidates
for Westminster, and is calling for a common front against the devastating
policies of the Tories.
Theresa May has received constant criticism for
not wanting to participate in the televised election debates, and the BBC has
done everything possible to avoid a confrontation in public between her and the
Scottish First Minister.
For May this election is supposed to achieve
the power to carry out all the projects of a hard Brexit, their xenophobic and
reactionary policies and the reconciliation of the Conservative Party with the
UKIP extremists now returning to the common house of the Tories. We talk about
Le Pen, but there are few differences in the arguments, programs and behaviour
of the British Conservatives.
For Nicola Sturgeon it is to strengthen her legitimate
and democratic mandate to defend Scotland against the constant attacks from
London and, more than ever, to stop the advance of the Conservative forces that
Labour with its complicity has allowed to grow.
And for Scotland these elections will be
another litmus test. An important decision between the defence of their
institutions and the centralism of Theresa May that will clearly endanger the
existence of the Holyrood Parliament and the sovereignty of the Scottish
people.
