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EN
The Scottish National Party initially pursued a maximum autonomy of Scotland (Home Rule). Since 1943, it has been a nationalist party fighting for the restoration of Scottish statehood. For most of its history, the party has not been a very attractive one for most of the Scottish electorate due to its minority status in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, unrealistic plan for achieving independence, and scepticism towards Scotland’s participation in the process of European integration and its NATO membership. In the last thirty years, the Scottish National Party has been presenting a more pragmatic programme, has become officially pro-European, and has supported Scotland’s NATO membership while its concept of independence has become one close to a confederation. This significant evolution coincided with the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, paving the way for the Scottish National Party to electoral victory and organization of a Scottish independence referendum.
EN
The purpose of this article is to explain the attitude of the Scottish National Party (SNP) towards European integration, based on a study of its activity in two campaigns – before the independence referendum in Scotland in 2014 and the referendum on continued membership of the United Kingdom in the European Union (EU) in 2016. Reciprocal links between the two events are perceptible even to a passing observer of the British Isle’s political life. The question of the EU membership was one of the most important topics in the independence referendum’s campaign, and the result of the European referendum has been widely interpreted in the context of the second independence referendum. By analyzing and comparing the referendum’s campaigns in the 2014 and 2016 and the period immediately after the announcement of the results of a European referendum, it can be seen that SNP presented the pro‑European stance in each of them, but using different sets of arguments. The concept of paradox, used in paper’s title, is a summary of a number of observations regarding the SNP’s complex relationship with the project of European integration. Although the aim of the party is to regain independence, the limitations of sovereignty, which according to many are associated with membership in the EU, do not raise critical assessment. The support for the European integration continues unabated despite the dominance of negative attitudes towards the Scottish independence movement among the European elites. Similarly, the party seems not to notice the level of euroscepticism among its electorate. And finally, what is the most interesting – on the one hand, the possibility of another independence referendum has not resulted in a change of the attitude towards Brexit, on the other hand in the same campaign it could be seen, that for SNP maintaining public support and a dominant position in relations with other parties in Scotland was more important that preventing Brexit.
PL
We wrześniu 2014 r. odbyło się w Szkocji referendum niepodległościowe. Kilka lat później, już po przełomowym referendum w sprawie członkostwa Zjednoczonego Królestwa w Unii Europejskiej, Nicola Sturgeon, pełniąca wówczas funkcję szefowej Szkockiej Partii Narodowej i Pierwszej Minister Szkocji, stała się twarzą kampanii na rzecz drugiego referendum na drodze do odzyskania przez Szkocję statusu suwerennego państwa. Padła nawet konkretna obietnica przeprowadzenia głosowania w październiku 2023 r. Kolejne brytyjskie rządy zdecydowanie sprzeciwiły się jednak wysiłkom Edynburga. W niniejszym artykule podjęto próbę analizy ustrojowo-prawnego i politycznego kontekstu tego swoistego ‘przeciągania liny’ pomiędzy władzami w Londynie i Edynburgu, z uwzględnieniem procesów dewolucji, niepodległościowych aspiracji Szkotów oraz konsekwencji Brexitu. Podstawowy problem badawczy dotyczy określenia ustrojowych warunków i przeszkód, jakie towarzyszą mieszkańcom Szkocji na ich drodze do niepodległości, szczególnie w związku z coraz bardziej antagonistycznym układem relacji pomiędzy brytyjskimi a szkockimi ośrodkami władzy.
EN
In the 2014 referendum Scottish voters were asked whether Scotland should be an independent country. Several years and one Brexit referendum later Nicola Sturgeon, the then popular and charismatic leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland, was making a convincing case for another independence referendum. She even proposed October 2023 as its date. But the United Kingdom government and successive Conservative prime ministers have consistently said “no”. This article analyses that constitutional and political ‘tug-of-war’ in the context of devolution settlement, pro-independence aspirations of Scottish people, consequences of Brexit, and growing tensions between Edinburgh and London. The most fundamental constitutional question within that frame of reference is what Scotland’s viable path to independence should be and in other words, under what circumstances the independence vision could be implemented.
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