英国退欧之际再遇苏格兰独立挑战

Nicola Sturgeon issued a demand on Monday for a second Scottish independence referendum, handing Theresa May the challenge of keeping the UK united just as she grapples with the country’s plans to leave the EU.

苏格兰首席大臣尼古拉?斯特金(Nicola Sturgeon，见上图)周一正式要求举行第二次苏格兰独立公投，这让特里萨?梅(Theresa May)在应对英国退出欧盟(EU)计划之际面临保持联合王国统一的挑战。

The Scottish first minister’s call for a vote by spring 2019 — around the time Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc — means the UK faces another battle over Scottish independence only a few years after the “once-in-a-generation” referendum in 2014.

苏格兰首席大臣提出的最迟在2019年春季（差不多正是英国将脱离欧盟的时候）举行独立公投的要求意味着，在2014年“一代人一次”的独立公投过去仅几年后，英国再次面临围绕苏格兰独立的角力。

Ms Sturgeon appeared to take Downing Street by surprise with her speech on Monday morning, disrupting plans by Theresa May, the UK prime minister, to invoke the EU’s Article 50 exit clause this week and thus start the two-year “divorce process”.

斯特金周一上午发表的演讲似乎让唐宁街感到意外，这扰乱了梅本周触发欧盟《里斯本条约》第50条(Article 50)、启动为期两年的“退欧程序”的计划。

Officials said Mrs May was likely to wait until the last week of March before doing so, even though her government was confident on Monday of gaining parliament’s final authorisation for the move.

官员们表示，梅很可能会等到3月最后一周才会启动退欧程序，即使她领导的政府周一相信此举将获得议会的最终授权。

The Scottish National party leader accused the UK prime minister of having “not moved an inch” in response to calls for a special deal on Brexit for Scotland, which voted by a large majority to remain in the EU in the Brexit referendum last year when the UK as a whole opted to leave.

身为苏格兰民族党(Scottish National party)领袖的斯特金批评称，对于在英国退欧时为苏格兰争取一项特殊协议的呼吁，英国首相“没有任何响应”；在去年的英国退欧公投中，苏格兰大部分人投票支持留在欧盟，而联合王国作为一个整体选择脱离欧盟。

“All of our efforts at compromise have been met with a brick wall of intransigence,” Ms Sturgeon said. Brexit threatened Scotland’s economy and its diverse society, she added.

斯特金表示：“我们所有的妥协努力都碰壁了，对方毫不妥协。”她补充称，英国退欧危及苏格兰经济及其多元化社会。

A Downing Street spokesman refused to say whether Mrs May would allow a second referendum, which has to be approved by Westminster. He suggested the prime minister would make her position clear after a vote by the Scottish parliament — where there is majority support for independence — on the issue next week.

唐宁街发言人拒绝透露梅是否将允许二次公投，此举须获得英国议会的批准。他暗示，梅将在苏格兰议会下周就此事投票后明确其立场，苏格兰议会大部分议员支持独立。