institute of europe
the institute of europe of the russian academy of sciences
Analytical paper No 13, 2024 «Change of First ministers in Scotland and Wales – a new crisis of power in a country»
- 03 June 2024
IE RAS presents Analytical papers of IE RAS No 13, 2024 «Change of First ministers in Scotland and Wales – a new crisis of power in a country» (in Russian) by Oleg Okhoshin, Candidate of Science (History), Senior Research Fellow of Centre for British Studies, Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In May 2024, J. Swinney became First Minister of the devolved government in Scotland after H. Yousaf had resigned due to the prospect of a vote of no confidence, which was being prepared by opposition parties in Holyrood. The reason for parliamentary confrontation was the breaking of coalition agreement between the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Greens by H. Yousaf. In the same month, Plaid Cymru had caused a political crisis in Wales by breaking partnership agreement with the Labor government. It was due to the scandals that discredited the First Minister of Wales and the leader of Welsh Labour W. Gething. The crisis of power in Scotland and Wales shows how fragile cross-party consensus can be due to misaligned regional establishment interests. The unstable political situation in the Celtic regions may affect the balance of political forces there in the general election on July 4, 2024.
