Hello, I'm Paige and this is the Euro Intelligence podcast covering current affairs in the

EU and Euro area. I'm joined by Wolfgang and Susanna, directors of Eurointelligence in Oxford,

for a very special weekend edition of the podcast. Wolfgang, we were a little bit delayed this week

because we were waiting for the election results to come in, and now they have. Maybe we can start with Scotland

first. Did Nicholas Sturgeon actually win this election?

Oh, she won. This is no question. She didn't win the absolute majority, which was what some

what they hoped and would at one point look possible. But it's a complex voting system, very

similar to the German voting system,

incidentally, with two votes, one for the constituencies, one for the proportionality.

The system was designed so that nobody gets an absolute majority, to prevent a vestment,

the style landslide that kind of Boris got in the last election.

So she didn't get that, but the Greens got a fair numbers of seats together with the

S&P constitutes a majority.

And the Greens are also pro-independence.

So politically, this was a victory for the two pro-independence parties.

It would have probably been a difference if the S&P had gained an absolute majority. That mandate would have been clearer, given that the

S&P's pro-independence credentials are, shall we say, purer than that of the Greens and the

Greens favour it's obviously what the S&P is all about.

So it makes a marginal difference in terms of the future process.

Now, the process is really interesting.

It's impossible.

It's one of those things.

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