The percentage of Scots who are in favor of independence remains in the minority, but it is still as high as Euroscepticism, according to a survey published today and a YouGov poll.
The polls come two days after Scottish Prime Minister Nicholas Sturgeon announced plans to hold a new independence referendum in late 2018 or early 2019.
According to a ScotCen survey on the state of nationalism in Europe, 46% of respondents between July and December 2016 were in favor of Scottish independence.
This percentage is the highest since the conduct of these annual surveys began in 1999 and has not stopped growing since 2012, according to the Athens News Agency.
The survey also shows that although Scotland voted 62% in favor of staying in the European Union, as opposed to the British as a whole who supported Brexit with 52%, Euroscepticism has been growing steadily in Scotland since 1999, reaching 67%. % in 2016.
"Rising levels of Euroscepticism in Scotland show that focusing on EU membership may not be the best way for voters to vote 'yes' to independence," the ScotCen survey found.
A YouGov poll published Wednesday in The Times from Thursday to Tuesday shows that 57% of Scots reject the idea of a break-up with the UK, compared with 43% in favor of the undecided have been excluded from the investigation.
The announcement by Nicholas Sturgeon, leader of the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), came on the same day that British lawmakers approved a bill authorizing the government to launch the Brexit process.
Sterzon has not stopped repeating since June that an exit from the European Union would justify holding a new referendum, after the one in September 2014, which won the "No" (55%) in independence. The SNP hopes that, in the event of its withdrawal, Scotland could maintain close ties with the European Union.
Conservative British Prime Minister Theresa May has condemned the plan, which "creates uncertainty at a time when the country needs to unite". "Independence will not mean joining the European Union," he warned yesterday.
The European Union has confirmed that Scotland should apply to join the EU.
Sturgeon's right-hand man, Angus Robertson, said in an interview with The Guardian today that a referendum could be avoided if Scotland could remain in the common market.
Robertson said the SNP's efforts were now aimed at "persuading the British government to reach a compromise that would protect Scotland's position in Europe".
Source: newsbeast.gr