The first prominent candidacy among the claimants to the succession of Nicola Sturgeon in Scotland as the new leader of the independentists of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and head of local government in Edinburgh sinks.
The rising star
Kate Forbes
, just 32 years old and already head of Finance in the Sturgeon cabinet for a year,
ended up in the storm after having declared herself against, in a personal capacity and for religious reasons, the LGBT wedding
.
Aligned with the outgoing leader on the strategy to try to revive the secessionist cause, but less radical than her on civil rights, Forbes - a faithful observer of the Free Church of Scotland - stated in one of the first interviews released after launching her campaign that if was deputy in 2014 could not have voted for reasons of conscience in favor of the law on equal marriage between persons of the same sex.
Words that sparked widespread criticism in the media and in the SNP, and resulted in the
immediate withdrawal of her support for her candidacy
from various government colleagues who had initially sponsored her.
"
I am a Muslim and proud of it, but faith does not condition my vote on the laws", replied another prominent candidate among Forbes' rivals: Humza Yousaf , 38, a Scotsman with a Pakistani father and Head of Health
under Sturgeon in these years (including the Covid pandemic season).
A figure whose credentials as a dolphin liked by the outgoing prime minister seem to be strengthening at the moment.
Moreover, the presentation of candidatures in Edinburgh has not yet been completed, in the context of an electoral process destined to last weeks.
While the internal divisions of the party - dormant in the last decade by the dominant leadership of Nicola Sturgeon - begin to emerge not only on the tactics of a battle for independence that appears to be in trouble at this stage, but also on the recent ultra-progressive image of the party.
And on dossiers such as that of the controversial
Gender Recognition Act
: law imposed in recent months by Sturgeon, not without ill humor, to liberalize gender reassignment in Scotland for people aged 16 and over with simple registration in an ad hoc register.
Only then to be blocked by the veto of the Tory central government in London for alleged incompatibility with some constitutional principles valid throughout the United Kingdom.