Agrégateur de flux

Az Egyesült Államok minden NATO-tagállamot biztosított arról, hogy a szövetség fenyegetés vagy támadás esetén készen áll megvédeni tagjait - jelentette ki az MTI kérdésére válaszolva Anthony Blinken amerikai külügyminiszter-helyettes a nácizmus elleni európai győzelem 70. évfordulója alkalmából a transzatlanti partnerségről megtartott május 8-i, pénteki sajtótájékoztatóján.

Magasabb szintre emelték a készültséget az Egyesült Államok katonai támaszpontjain - közölte május 8-án, pénteken az Egyesült Államok védelmi minisztériuma.

A német határtól alig ötven kilométerre található a ma oly csendes holland város, Arnhem. Csaknem hetvenegy évvel ezelőtt azonban utcáin véres harcot vívtak hídjáért a brit ejtőernyősök és az azt védő német erők. Felszabadítóikról, a brit hadsereg katonáiról a mai napig irigylésre méltó módon emlékeznek meg a holland emberek.

Igazi zenei csemegének lehettek fültanúi az érdeklődők az MH 5. Bocskai István Lövészdandár Debrecen Helyőrségi Zenekara - kiegészülve a Hódmezővásárhelyi Helyőrségi Zenekarral - és a Debreceni Egyetem Zeneművészeti Kar hallgatóinak közös koncertjén.

Egész napos programsorozattal ünnepelték a hajdúhadházi kiképző bázison a névadó, Vay Ádám születésének 358. évfordulóját az MH 5. Bocskai István Lövészdandár katonái. A rendezvényen jelen volt dr. Benkő Tibor vezérezredes, Honvéd Vezérkar főnök és dr. Böröndi Gábor dandártábornok, az MH Összhaderőnemi Parancsnokság Szárazföldi haderőnem főnöke is.

„Ez ugyan nem verseny, de ahogy mondani szokták: az utolsó mosogat…” – indította útjára Hende Csaba honvédelmi miniszter a „Tekerj a sereggel!” elnevezésű, két napos, Balaton körüli kerékpártúrát, május 9-én, szombaton, Keszthelyen. A tárcavezető szerint a sereg – és saját maga is - részben az egészségesebb társadalomért is teker. A túrán részt vesz - mások mellett - Ilan Mor, Izrael állam rendkívüli, és meghatalmazott budapesti nagykövete is.

A világ minden országára egyformán kiterjedő, a mai fenyegetésekre megfelelő választ adó biztonsági rendszert kell létrehozni, amely nem a katonai tömbök logikáján nyugszik - jelentette ki az orosz államfő a moszkvai Vörös téren május 9-én, szombaton tartott jubileumi katonai díszszemlén.

Kilencvenedik születésnapján köszöntötték Soós Sándort, a Honvéd Férfikar nyugállományú énekesét és alapító karnagyát május 8-án, pénteken, Budapesten.

Chairman of Russia’s State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs Alexei Pushkov met with senior French politicians in Paris. He claimed that relations between the two countries have significantly improved and promoted the idea of an alliance between Russia, France and Germany.

Brazília még idén szerződést kötne a Pancir-Sz1 légvédelmi komplexum megvásárlásáról. Az amerikai terjeszkedésre adott válaszként gomba-módra szaporodhatnak Dél-Amerikában az orosz haditechnikai eszközök.

All over the world, people are forgetting to call their mothers on this second Sunday of May. Get on that, if you live in one of the dozens of countries celebrating Mother’s Day on May 10 this year. In Brazil, Dia das Mães is an unusually big deal. Families gather for celebrations and meals. The retail sector sees a spike in business topped only by Christmas. And thousands of prisoners are released temporarily so that they can go home to visit the women who raised them.

Prisoners in Brazil who demonstrate good behavior and meet other requirements are allowed to take five breaks from prison per year: Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Children’s Day, Christmas, and one additional, flexible day. During the Christmas furlough two years ago, 47,531 inmates across Brazil left prison on temporary release. Some 2,400 never bothered to return. The Department of Corrections in São Paulo did not respond immediately to questions regarding the size of this year’s mass furlough.

More than 550,000 Brazilians are behind bars — the fourth largest prison population in the world, after the United States, China, and Russia. By most measures, Brazil’s prisons are in horrid shape, plagued by severe overcrowding and rampant violence. In 2013, nearly 60 inmates were murdered — in a single prison. An investigation uncovered that gang leaders were systematically raping inmate’s wives during conjugal visits there as well. In another facility, three prisoners were beheaded during a riot. And beneath the searing horrors that make international headlines, ordinary prisoners face terrible miscarriages of justice, often waiting for years in overcrowded group cells just to stand trial. While spared some of the violence male inmates face, women prisoners also contend with harsh conditions of confinement and abusive treatment, according to Human Rights Watch.

Despite the high rate of escape — which could be reduced through electronic monitoring, according to InSight Crime — the furlough program has substantial benefits: It helps inmates remain engaged with their communities and families, and helps them reintegrate more easily after release. It also leads to a spike in lawbreaking: A 2015 report by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security reported “notable increases” in crime during holidays Brazil — attributable in part to the “liberal system of prison furloughs.”

“Many people in Brazil believe that inmates must suffer, enduring hunger and depravity,” Euza Beloti, a psychologist, told the New York Times in March. “This thinking bolsters a system where prisoners return to society more violent than when they entered prison.”

The furlough system encourages a more progressive approach. And not all furloughs mark traditional, wholesome occasions like Mother’s Day. A new, experimental program has begun granting furloughs for another reason: Rituals deep in the jungle during which inmates consume ayahuasca, a powerful hallucinogen. “Each experience helps me communicate with my victim to beg for forgiveness,” Celmiro de Almeida, a homicide convict who has taken the drug nearly 20 times since going to prison, told the Times.

No word on how his mom feels about this method of rehabilitation. Call your mother!

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Comme c'est souvent le cas chez Airbus, les équipes d'essais en vol sont formés d'anciens militaires
Plus d'infos »

Soldiers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) practiced for some 10 hours daily in preparation for the military parade held on the Victory Day in Moscow's Red Square to honor the memory of those who fought in the war against fascism.

La presse espagnole a déjà diffusé ce qu'elle présente comme les derniers messages livrés par
Plus d'infos »

Juncker et Cameron au sommet du 19 mars (crédit : Conseil de l’UE)

(BRUXELLES2) Le président Juncker a adressé un signe amical vendredi (8 mai) à David Cameron après l’avoir félicité pour sa victoire aux législatives. « I stand ready to work with you to strike a fair deal for the United Kingdom in the EU and look forward to your ideas and proposals in this regard » autrement dit : « Je suis prêt à travailler avec vous pour trouver un accord équitable pour le Royaume-Uni dans l’UE et nous nous réjouissons de vos idées et des propositions sur ce sujet ». Ce qui ouvre la porte à une négociation accommodante. Peu avant cette déclaration, lors de l’échange quotidien de la presse avec le porte-parole, nous en avions eu les pistes de négociation possibles.

Intransigeant sur le principe…

A la question de savoir si la libre circulation des personnes comme les autres libertés fondamentales (marchandises, services, capitaux) était négociable, la réponse a fusé, martiale, intransigeante. « Les quatre libertés restent non négociables. » Mais quand on cherche à en savoir plus, à creuser, vouloir préciser les lignes rouges ou les points de négociation (ce qui était le sens de ma question de suivi, le ton change.

Accommodant sur l’application

On s’aperçoit que, même à l’intérieur des 4 libertés, en particulier pour la libre circulation des personnes, il y a des marges de négociation qui pourraient rencontrer l’intérêt du Royaume-Uni. « Oui — a-t-il répondu —, il y a des zones grises, des points qui méritent éclaircissement (notamment pour le cas de l’aide sociale ou de la libre circulation des chômeurs). Ce n’est pas une nouveauté. Car l’abus de liberté est autre chose. » Or, on sait que c’est là où cela coince : le droit de séjour des personnes qui se retrouvent privées d’emploi ou au chômage.

Essai de ruse

En fait, la Commission louvoie, essaie de ruser. Mais le message délivré reste un peu confus. Londres qui bénéfice déjà d’un rabais de cotisation, a négocié une exonération à la Charte des droits fondamentaux, ne participe ni à certaines politiques (Euro, Schengen, Coopération policière), ni à certaines charges (sa participation à la politique de défense est minime) mais par contre veut participer à toutes les décisions bénéficierait encore d’autres exonérations.

Deux poids, deux mesures

Plus que jamais, avec le Royaume-Uni, on semble en face d’un « deux poids, deux mesures ». Pour les Etats qui veulent rester dans l’Union, c’est l’application des règles, de toutes les règles. Pour ceux qui disent : retenez-moi sinon je pars. Alors, là on dit : « négocions, c’est une bonne idée, pourquoi pas, hein, que voulez-vous ? Un petit rabais de plus ? une exception de plus ? Un calin et une jolie histoire pour vous border le soir, le petit déjeuner servi au lit le matin, tous les jours, le beurre, l’argent du beurre, la crémière et le potage, allez, soyons généreux, c’est normal, vous êtes le Royaume-Uni… » Non soyons sérieux. Plus l’Europe se couchera, fera la danse du ventre devant David Cameron et Londres, plus les Britanniques exigeront de l’Europe, sans renoncer à aucun de leurs privilèges. Et il n’est pas dit au final qu’ils ne rejetteront pas la proposition, juste pour pouvoir exiger davantage encore que ce que nous aurons octroyer au départ.

About 12 million people have participated Saturday in the "Immortal Regiment" march throughout Russia.

(BRUXELLES2) Est-ce un véritable conflit qui est en passe de renaître en Macédoine (ex république Yougoslave / Fyrom) ? Ou un nouveau soubresaut politique d’un pays qui n’arrive pas à la maturation de la démocratie (*) ? Quoi qu’il en soit, l’Europe qui avait son attention concentrée sur une série d’autres régions du monde va devoir se réintéresser (un peu) aux Balkans. Car la situation reste confuse. Et il n’est pas exclu qu’on soit face à une tentative de manipulation du pouvoir.

Plusieurs tués et blessés dans les forces de l’ordre et parmi les assaillants

5 policiers des unités spéciales et unités de déploiement rapide ont été tués ce samedi (9 mai), et 30 autres blessés dans une action menée contre un « groupe armé venu d’un pays voisin » à Kumanovo, ville albanophone du nord du pays, proche de la frontière de Serbie, a indiqué un communiqué du ministère qui donnait les noms des policiers tués. « Informé, le matin, le ministère de l’intérieur a entrepris de neutraliser (ce) groupe terroriste. Le groupe a fini par être vaincu après 18h, un premier élément de 20 personnes a quitté les maisons pour se rendre. » La situation devient ensuite confuse. « Un groupe a refusé de se rendre sans condition et continué les tirs. C’est durant cette période que les policiers ont été tués. » (NB : il n’est pas du tout exclu qu’on soit en présence également de tirs « amis »).

(Maj) Un bilan revu dans les jours suivants, le nombre total de victimes s’éléverait à 22 : 8 policiers et 14 « terroristes » selon la dénomination du ministère macédonien de l’intérieur.

La préoccupation de l’Union européenne

Le commissaire européen Johannes Hahn, en charge du Voisinage, a réagi rapidement se montrant « préoccupé par la situation qui se déroule dans la région de Kumanovo. Je demande instamment aux autorités et à tous les dirigeants politiques et communautaires à coopérer, pour rétablir le calme et enquêter pleinement sur les événements de manière objective et transparente dans le respect du droit. » Il a appelé « tous les acteurs à la plus grande retenue. Toute nouvelle escalade doit être évitée, au moins dans l’intérêt de la stabilité générale dans le pays. »

(Maj) Lundi, répondant à des questions de journalistes, Johannes Hahn a été plus loin. « Cette attaque ne peut pas et ne doit se distraire de la situation interne en FYROM » a-t-il indiqué lançant un appel au gouvernement comme à l’opposition à rester engager dans la négociation. Cet évènement « ne doit pas être une opportunité de quitter la table des négociations. (…) Ce ne doit pas être l’occasion de compliquer encore la situation en attisant les tensions ethniques. »

(NGV)

(*) Une série d’écoutes sur des responsables politiques, journalistes et autres personnes a été révélée par l’opposition, il y a quelques semaines.

(Maj) lun 11 mai, révision du bilan et déclaration supplémentaire du commissaire Hahn

WARSAW — On Feb. 14, Magdalena Ogórek, a left-wing candidate in Poland’s presidential race, said if she were elected, she “would pick up the phone to call the Russian president” to normalize relations between Moscow and Warsaw. As it happens, it’s an unlikely scenario: The 36-year-old historian and TV personality is polling just 3 percent. But her comment sparked the question every candidate has now had to think about in the run up to the May 10 presidential election: Would you call Vladimir Putin?

The incumbent, President Bronislaw Komorowski, dismissed it outright. “If someone thinks that peace in Europe depends on a phone call, then they’re a bit out of touch with reality,” he said in a television interview. But that didn’t stop his main rival, Andrzej Duda, from releasing a campaign video showing a snoring Komorowski being woken in the night to take a phone call from Moscow. The clip ends with the words: “Do you want to continue worrying who will answer the phone?”

Foreign policy concerns — far beyond phone calls to the Kremlin — have been more prominent in this Polish election than previous ones, says Marcin Zaborowski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM). According to a recent poll, Poles consider security the most important topic in the presidential campaign. The spotlight has been on the conflict in Ukraine and its implications for Poland and the region.

Eleven candidates, ranging from anti-clerical left to the monarchist far-right, are running for president. But there is a broad consensus between the two main candidates, Komorowski and Duda: Poland must take a hard line toward Russia and keep up support for the embattled government in Kiev, acting as its advocate in the European Union.

Where there is discord is over the details. “Disagreements tend to focus on who is the most competent to achieve those objectives and the best way to achieve them,” says Aleks Szczerbiak, a professor at the University of Sussex, who writes a blog on Polish politics. Komorowski wants Poland in the “European mainstream,” working closely with Germany and others. In contrast, Duda is calling for a more independent Polish foreign policy that steers its Western allies and not the other way around, Szczerbiak adds.

Komorowski, who served as defense minister from 2000 to 2001 and, as president, serves as the commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces, has presented himself as the only candidate capable of guaranteeing Poland’s security. NATO and its eastern flank need to be strengthened, he says. And he’s clear that Poland should take its own defense seriously. He recently announced two major arms purchases — Raytheon Patriot missiles from the United States, and 50 French Airbus Group helicopters — as part of Poland’s program to modernize its army.

Poland also needs to encourage Ukraine’s westward course, says Komorowski, who believes a stable, democratic, European Ukraine is vital to Poland’s security. “The Western world must understand that it will not be safe until Ukraine is safe,” he said in speech at the Ukrainian parliament in April, the first by a Polish president since 1997. Earlier this year, Komorowski stated that Poland was ready to sell weapons to Ukraine.

But if the incumbent sounds hawkish, his challenger, who is currently polling at around 30 percent is even more so. On international affairs, Komorowski and the current government are “flowing in the mainstream,” Duda said in a briefing on Feb. 18. There, the 42-year-old lawyer from Krakow said he believes that “this is not a sovereign policy,” because it means that “someone else is creating that current.” Poland, he added, should be the one to “create that current.”

Duda wants Poland to be “the regional leader of a bloc of post-communist states trying to persuade the Western powers to adopt a more robust response to Russian expansionism,” says Szczerbiak. In this way, his vision resembles that of the late Lech Kaczynski, Komorowski’s predecessor, who died in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, in 2010.

The only other contender with double-digit ratings on the eve of the election is Pawel Kukiz, a rock musician, running as an independent. “We should act within the framework of the [NATO] Alliance, but not step ahead of the line,” he said in a television interview on March 8. Poland can send Ukraine humanitarian aid, as well as bulletproof vests — but “no Kalashnikovs.”

Meanwhile, several minor candidates are calling for a more conciliatory attitude towards Russia. Ogórek, who first raised the idea of calling Putin, said at her campaign launch on Feb. 14 that Poland “cannot afford to have the Russian media defining us as Russia’s enemy No. 1.” The agrarian candidate, Adam Jarubas, has drawn attention to the plight of Polish farmers in the wake of Moscow’s ban on Polish agricultural products last summer, which has cost the country at least $550 million, according to government estimates. “We must view the economic dimension of [Poland’s relations with Russia] cooly,” he said at a talk on foreign policy in Warsaw on April 20.

These candidates are a reminder that not all Poles are delighted with Warsaw’s current support for Kiev. But, with each carrying less than 5 percent in polls, they are not serious contenders for the presidency.

Indeed, it’s re-election for Komorowski that still looks the most likely. The timing may work to his advantage: The election comes two days after the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe on May 8. Poland decided to shun the “Victory Day” parade in Moscow and held its own events on May 7 in Gdansk, attended by several leaders from the region, including Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko. These were preceded by a conference on the legacy of World War II that featured international historians — a deliberate contrast to the display of military might planned for Red Square. “Let us remember that the military demonstration [in Moscow on May 9] is not about history, but about today and the future,” Komorowski said ahead of the anniversary.

These commemorative events, in which Komorowski played a leading role, gave him a last minute chance to show that he is taking Poland’s security seriously, emphasizing parallels between the international situation seven decades ago and now, which adds credibility to his campaign’s security theme.

That may not be enough to give the incumbent the outright majority he’d need to avoid a runoff, where he’ll likely face Duda — and win. But even in the case of the unlikely, the Polish president won’t be dialing the Kremlin any time in the near future.

JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Images

/Voir la version française plus bas/

One of the new A400M military transport aircraft crashed Saturday, May 9 near Seville in southern Spain. It was a test flight, conducted systematically before a new airplane is delivered to the customer. This usually occurs with a reduced crew. This is the first accident of this type of device since its commissioning. The aircraft informed the control tower to report a problem, before rushing toward the ground. The crew was Spanish and the accident has cost four lives.
The manufacturer Airbus Defence and Space, a subsidiary of European aerospace group (former EADS, up to 2013), which assembles the A400M at its factory in Seville, Andalusia, said in a statement that the plane was destined for Turkey. Airbus was not able to provide details of the accident, but has formed a crisis unit.

The first copy of the new European aircraft was delivered to France in 2013. Since then, Turkey and Germany have also taken delivery. Equipped with four turboprop engines, the A400M can carry up to 37 tons on 3300 km, land on unprepared terrain like sand, with a cargo of tanks or helicopters. The device has experienced many delays in its production and in its deliveries and accumulated an overbudget of 6.2 billion euros (around 30%).
Airbus has high hopes for this device that hits the market when its US competitors are at an end, including the C-130 developed there over 50 years. A total of 174 copies have been ordered to date, including 50 from France, 53 from Germany, 27 from Spain and 22 from the UK.

Following the crash of the Saturday A400M, Germany, the UK and Turkey have decided to stop their planes. If other countries are waiting for the identification of disaster`s causes, France has meanwhile decided to keep its six A400M in service but only "for priority flights," said the Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

In March 2015, the Royal Air Force has received its second A400M transport aircraft "Atlas". And one of the six aircraft delivered to the Air Force will going to fly, this March 6, around the world, in 15 days, 11 stops and 3 days, 2 hours and 20 minutes of cumulative flight (Transall C-160 would require three times as long). And that in order to ensure the commercial promotion of the device in Australia, check the availability of land and Faa'a Tontouta in New Caledonia and measure crew`s fatigue and alertness during the long trips.

These appearances are deceiving. After being rescued in 2010 while additional costs and delays mounted, the A400M program traverses a zone of turbulence again, which led to the replacement of Airbus military aviation branch`s director, Domingo Ureña-Raso by Fernando Alonso. The first A400M delivered in December to the German army, would have been found some "875 shortcomings" ... Hence the severe criticism of the manufacturer by Berlin, which also wants to replace as soon as its C-160 Transall suffering a serious problem of availability. "There is more at stake than the single image of an industrial company, it is question of the reliability of Germany in its alliances' military even said Ursula von der Leyen, the German Minister of Defense. And estimate that Airbus "seemed to have a problem with understanding the quality of a product". French Air Force was to receive 4 planes in 2015, it will have to settle for just 2. And Again, if all goes well as the delivery of the second aircraft is expected to occur at the end of the year.

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L`une des nouveaux avions de transport militaire A400M s'est écrasé samedi, le 9 mai près de Séville, dans le sud de l'Espagne. Il s'agissait d'un vol d'essai, réalisé systématiquement avant qu'un nouvel appareil soit livré au client. Il s'effectue généralement avec un équipage réduit. C'est le premier accident de ce type d'appareil depuis sa mise en service. L'avion a informé la tour de contrôle pour lui signaler un problème, avant de foncer vers le sol. L'équipage était espagnol et l`accident a coûté la vie à quatre personnes.

Le constructeur Airbus Defence and Space, filiale du groupe aéronautique européen (EADS jusqu`à 2013) qui assemble l'A400M dans son usine de Séville, en Andalousie, a indiqué dans un communiqué que cet avion était destiné à la Turquie. Airbus n'a pas été en mesure de donner des détails sur l'accident, mais a constitué une cellule de crise.

Le premier exemplaire de ce nouvel avion européen a été livré à la France en 2013. Depuis, la Turquie et l'Allemagne en ont également pris livraison. Équipé de quatre turbopropulseurs, l'A400M peut transporter jusqu'à 37 tonnes sur 3.300 kilomètres, se poser sur des terrains non préparés comme le sable, avec à son bord des blindés ou des hélicoptères. L'appareil a connu de nombreux retards dans sa fabrication puis dans ses livraisons et a accumulé un dépassement de budget de 6,2 milliards d'euros (environ 30%).
Airbus a de grands espoirs pour cet appareil qui arrive sur le marché quand ses concurrents américains sont en bout de course, notamment le C-130 conçu il y a plus de 50 ans. Au total, 174 exemplaires ont été commandés à ce jour, dont 50 par la France, 53 par l'Allemagne, 27 par l'Espagne et 22 par le Royaume-Uni.

Suite au crash de l'A400M de samedi, l'Allemagne, le Royaume-Uni et la Turquie ont décidé d'immobiliser leurs avions. Si les autres pays attendent que soient identifiées les causes de la catastrophe, la France a quant à elle décidé de garder ses six A400M en service mais seulement "pour les vols prioritaires", a précisé le ministre de la Défense Jean-Yves Le Drian.

En mars 2015 le Royal Air Force vient de recevoir son deuxième avion de transport A400M « Atlas ». Et un des six exemplaires livrés à l’armée de l’Air va boucler, ce 6 mars, un tour du monde accompli en 15 jours, 11 escales et 3 jours, 2 heures et 20 minutes de vol cumulé (un Transall C-160 aurait besoin de trois fois plus de temps). Et cela afin d’assurer la promotion commerciale de l’appareil en Australie, de vérifier l’accessibilité des terrains de Faa’a et Tontouta en Nouvelle-Calédonie et de mesurer la fatigue et le niveau de vigilance des équipages sur de longs trajets.

Ces apparences sont trompeuses. Après avoir été sauvé en 2010 alors que les surcoûts et les retards s’accumulaient, le programme A400M traverse à nouveau une zone de turbulences, ce qui a conduit au remplacement du directeur de la branche aviation militaire chez Airbus, Domingo Ureña-Raso par Fernando Alonso. Sur le premier A400M livré en décembre à l’armée allemande, il aurait été constaté quelques « 875 manquements »… D’où les sévères critiques adressées au constructeur par Berlin, qui veut par ailleurs remplacer au plus vite ses Transall C-160 qui souffrent d’un sérieux problème de disponibilité. « Il y a plus en jeu que la seule image d’une entreprise industrielle, il est question de la fiabilité de l’Allemagne dans ses alliances » militaires, a même déclaré Mme Ursula von der Leyen, le ministre allemand de la Défense. Et d’estimer qu’Airbus « semblait avoir un problème avec sa compréhension de la qualité d’un produit ».L`armée de l’Air française devait recevoir 4 avions en 2015, elle devra s’en contenter de seulement 2. Et encore, si tout va bien étant donné que la livraison du second avion devrait avoir lieu à la fin de l’année.

Source : Sudouest.fr et Zone militaire

Language English Tag: A400M

GLASGOW — In Glasgow, there is hoary political cliché: voters would elect a monkey wearing a red Labour rosette, such is the party’s dominance in Scotland’s largest city. After Thursday, those lazy assumptions are gone forever.

The political earthquake that hit Scotland in the early hours of Friday morning was not unexpected. For months, opinion polls had predicted that the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP) was set for a sweeping victory in the general election, winning almost every seat in Scotland. And yet, when the results finally arrived, the impact was no less jarring. Overnight, Scotland’s political landscape has been razed, with potentially seismic long-term repercussions for the whole of the United Kingdom.

Thursdays’ vote represented a seismic change from more than a decade of minimal change in Scotland at U.K. general elections. In 2010, not a single one of the 59 Westminster seats in Scotland changed hands. The SNP, which went into the election with six seats, now holds 56. The nationalists’ previous best general election return was 11, in 1974.

Stories of improbable victories abound: In Glasgow North East, for example, Willie Bain, who was thought to hold the safest seat in the west of Scotland, lost his Labour seat by a margin of 58.1 percent to 33.7 percent – the swing of almost 40 per cent from the 2010 election, setting a U.K. record for volatility. Similar figures were recorded across Scotland: In Coatbridge, for example, the sitting Labour MP, in office since 1982, was swept from power by a swing of more than 36 percent to the SNP. In Paisley, Labour shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander was defeated by a 20-year-old who has yet to sit her finals at university. In the Highlands, the SNP’s Drew Hendry solidly beat Danny Alexander who had been Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the treasury in the coalition government at Westminster.

Labour lost all but one of the 41 seats it took in 2010. The party, founded by a Scot, Keir Hardie, and effectively forged as a political force in the heartlands of industrial Scotland, could struggle to regain power again.

The SNP’s general election victory was widely welcomed on the streets of Glasgow Friday. The SNP had never won a general election seat in Scotland’s largest city before, though the city voted for independence. Now, all seven Glasgow MPs are Scottish nationalist. Aiden, 25, who works in a coffee shop and had voted nationalist for the first time, was “delighted with the result,” he said. “We need a change and that’s what this is.”

On Thursday night at a sports arena in Glasgow’s East End, ashen-faced Labour activists stood solemnly watching the returning officer on stage announce the results of each of the seven seats in the city. All fell to the Scottish nationalists, with huge swings away from Labour incumbents. “We are in different territory,” Frank McAveety, a former Labour member of the Scottish Parliament and sitting councilor told me as he stood watching the returning officer declare yet another SNP victory. Labour, he said, did not offer Scottish voters a clear narrative. “We need to find a way that we are telling the story of Scotland’s future.”

But Labour’s problems in Scotland run too deep to be resolved with simply a more compelling story. The party has long dominated Scottish politics — especially at the local level, Labour has controlled Glasgow city council for all but four years since 1952. But in recent years, Labour has looked increasingly lethargic and out of touch. The party’s share of the U.K. general election vote remained strong until Thursday – it won over 40 per cent in 2010 – but Labour lost control of the devolved Scottish parliament in 2007, and was badly beaten in the 2011 Scottish elections.

Lacking resources and active members, Labour often struggled to compete with the SNP on the ground during this general election campaign. Even in Labour held seats the party was often thin on the ground, forced to reply on mailshots and phone calls to get their message across. Meanwhile, the SNP has been buoyed with the youthful vivacity of over 75,000 new members — and pre-election polls suggested that more than 70 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted SNP — since last year’s independence referendum.

The euphoria that spread among SNP supporters on Thursday night as seat after seat turned the party’s distinctive shade of canary yellow has been tempered in recent days by the wider U.K. picture: The Conservatives – widely loathed in Scotland – won an unexpected majority. Blamed for the de-industrialization that still scars much of urban Scotland, the Tories remain unpopular in much of Scotland. Many Scots are wary of another Tory administration. Thursday was the Conservatives worst ever performance north of the border, even though the party’s sole Scottish Conservative MP, David Mundell, held his seat in the Scottish Borders.

David Cameron’s success raises difficult questions for the super-charged Scottish nationalist cohort at Westminster. Nicola Sturgeon, the party’s leader, has said she will not work with the Tories, potentially leaving the phalanx of new SNP MPs effectively impotent on the backbenches. There is precedent for this in Scottish politics: During the 1980s and 1990s, the large Labour delegations Scotland sent down to London were effectively frozen out of power during almost two decades of Conservative rule. This fed demands for a local parliament that reflected Scotland’s more left wing electoral preferences.

If the new SNP intake does find itself without influence in the House they could propose another option: leaving Westminster, and the United Kingdom, altogether. Certainly the fact that Scotland has once again voted left – this time for the SNP – and has found itself governed once more by the right could add more pressure for another referendum on independence.

But Thursday’s result does not charge the basic arithmetic of independence. A majority of Scots would still vote to stay in the union, despite the ringing endorsement handed to the SNP. Sturgeon will not hold another referendum until she and her party are confident of victory.

But a psychological blow has been struck to the three-centuries-old union with England. This general election campaign has done more harm to the union than last year’s referendum: Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservatives’ strategy of depicting the SNP as nefarious separatists that would hold a Labour government to “ransom” was brutally efficient in key English marginal seats, but has damaged cross-border relations.

Whether Cameron is willing, or able, to find a new accommodation with Scottish nationalists is unclear – although without one, the union looks increasingly doomed.

On Friday, Cameron said he would fulfill pledges for greater devolution – that is more powers for the Scottish Parliament. But any such deal would be contingent on restricting the rights of non-English MPs in the House of Commons to vote on issues that only affected England. In exchange for dropping their opposition to this, Scottish nationalists could be offered full control over tax and spend.

Such a piecemeal approach to constitutional reform, however, is part of the reason the U.K. is threatened with disintegration. Devolution has been a largely ad hoc reaction to demands for self-government, often designed in line with the interests of major U.K. political parties rather than voting publics in the devolved regions. A fully fledged constitutional convention to discuss a new arrangement for governing across the U.K., possibly under a federal system, might solve these issues but “looks as far off as ever,” said Michael Keating, professor of politics at the University of Aberdeen.

Regardless of what happens in Westminster, the SNP look set to consolidate their power in Edinburgh, a city far more central to their eventual goals – that is, independence. If there is to be another referendum, the nationalists will need to win another majority in Scottish parliamentary elections, slated to take place next May.

Their chances are looking bright. On Friday, at a press conference Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy was defiant, telling journalists that his party would “bounce back” from its most disastrous performance in history. But with just a single seat in Westminster and their lowest poll ratings in decades, Labour is a long, long way off regaining its mantle as the party of Scotland.

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