Nicola Sturgeon must answer for seven hours, as a defendant and detained, to questions from a team of police investigating the finances of the Scottish National Party (SNP). When just four months ago the leader of the independence party, and chief minister of the autonomous region, announced his surprise resignation, he attributed the decision to the vital fatigue imposed by modern political intensity, to the pressure of social and information networks. cycle that does not stop 24 hours a day. Many suspect that there is a more mundane reason for the sudden departure from the front lines of a woman who has successfully and popularly dominated Scottish public debate in recent years.

As the details of the police investigation into his party became known, Sturgeon’s insistence on trying to find an honorable solution became more understandable. Days after his resignation, Scots witnessed the arrest and questioning of the former chief minister’s husband, and until shortly before the SNP chief executive, Peter Murrell. Former formation treasurer, Colin Beattie, was immediately arrested. Police are trailing more than 700,000 euros from affiliates and supporters who enthusiastically supported the idea of ​​promoting a second independence referendum from 2017, after the failure and feelings of betrayal provoked by the victory in many Scots across the UK of the Brexit they had rejected. All of that money was finally disbursed into the party’s account, without a clear explanation.

Despite the fact that the SNP promised at the time, after the apparent defeat in the 2014 independence referendum, that it would be a generation before asking Scots again, Sturgeon rode a growing wave of discontent among his fellow citizens, which was then exacerbated by the London management debacle. the pandemic and the bad image of Boris Johnson. Sturgeon used electoral discontent to strengthen his party, and his own political authority, but was unable to agree to the British central government, which he adamantly refused, to enter into new consultations. He then doubled down, pointing to the upcoming UK general election, scheduled for late next year, as a de facto referendum that would make the will of Scots clear. Opinion polls, and internal debate within his party, reveal that very few are willing to follow the prime minister on this dubious and deeply conflicted adventure.