Parliamentary elections in Wales : a view from Brittany

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Wales will be holding parliamentary elections on 6th May 2021.

Etholiad Senedd Cymru, 2021 – 2021 Senedd election
This is the first legislative election to be held by our Welsh neighbours and cousins since the National Assembly of Wales became the Welsh Parliament.

The sixty seats in Senedd Cymru are currently distributed as follows.
29 for the Socialists / Labour of Mark Drakeford, the First Minister.
12 for the Independence-supporting Plaid Cymru of Adam Price.
11 for the Conservatives of Andrew Davies.
The eight other seats are divided between the English nationalists of UK with seven and the Liberal Democrats.

Welsh Labour / Llafur Cymru.

These are Socialists who report to the United Kingdom Labour Party whose head office is in London, 250 kilometres east of Wales. These « socialists » support a certain level of devolution while #AtTheSameTime remain highly attached to the United Kingdom. In fact, they’re Unionists. They’re a little like the French Socialists who through the machinations of Loïg Chesnais-Girard, still hold the Brittany administrative Region.
Since 1999, the head of the Welsh government has always been a Socialist who reports to London.
Mark Drakeford is the leader of Llafur Cymru / Welsh Labour in Wales and its First Minister. While he swears allegiance to his London managers, Mark Drakeford is still less dependent on it that his Breton counterpart is to his own central government.

Plaid Cymru.

Pronounced « plyde kemri« .
It has been the Welsh Nationalist Party since 1925. The National Party of Wales, Plaid Cymru, only won its first seat in the London parliament in 1966. Plaid Cymru openly campaigns for Welsh independence, just like its neighbour to the north the SNP, the Scottish National Party.
In addition, Plaid Cymru is a member of the European Free Alliance, which brings together several regional and separatist movements across Europe. The members of this alliance include the SNP, the Scottish National Party, Mebyon Kernow from Cornwall and the UDB Union Démocratique Bretonne from Brittany.

The Welsh Conservatives / Ceidwadwyr Cymreig.

They are the Conservative wing of the United Kingdom Conservative Party, which is also based outside Wales. This Welsh « branch office » of the English centre-right party believes in maintaining the unity of the United Kingdom at all costs.
Here we can see a certain similarity between the political situation in Wales and in Brittany. These are unionist subsidiaries of so-called « national » political parties who come out to the « provinces » to explain to the people that they need to keep meekly obeying central government and give up everything which makes them different.

Autonomy…

In 1999, Wales achieved a certain level of autonomy from the British central government in London. Until 2006, this Cynulliad Cenedlaethol Cymru (the National Assembly for Wales) only had regulatory authority. Then, from 2011 in particular, the Welsh began to be able to draft their own laws. In particular, they were able to legislate in the following areas: heritage and culture, health, education, tourism, transport, agriculture and others.

In 2014, the Wales Act 2014 gave the National Assembly for Wales the power to collect certain taxes directly. Finally, the Wales Act 2020 or the Senedd and elections law transformed the National Assembly into Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament).
In Wales, the term used to talk about autonomy is « devolution« . This is a term which is defined as: « The transfer or transmission of a property or right from one person to another« .

Towards independence for Wales

For several years now, the idea that Wales could become independent has been gaining ground in Welsh public opinion. Like everywhere in Europe, stateless nations who are dependent on central governments which are too far away from them are organising to achieve their independence. We think of course of Scotland, which is close to Wales. We also think of Catalonia, the Faeroe Islands, Corsica and many other regions across Europe.
Since 2013, several opinion polls have shown this trend.
From 10% and 12% in favour of Welsh independence according to YouGov surveys in 2013 and 2014, support has continued to grow. The latest surveys in 2020 and 2021 show between 22 and 26% of people in favour, according to polling organisations.

What about Brittany?

Also in 2013, a, IFOP opinion poll for the Ouest France group’s Bretons Magazine confirmed that 18% of Bretons were « completely » and « quite favourable to independence for Brittany« . This was around six points higher than the Welsh the same year. Since then, there have been no more opinion polls on this subject in our country. For central government, not all truths should be heard.
Generally, the political system is the same. One the one hand, you have branches of political parties who depend on London over there and on Paris over here. On the other, you have one or more movements that are solidly in place, without any allegiance to central authorities.
In Brittany, they are more in favour of autonomy while in Wales they are more nationalist.