Welsh Nationalists Out to Swing UK Elections

Even though they may only win a handful of parliamentary seats at next month's general election, the Welsh nationalists still have a chance to gain a degree of political influence across the UK.

With no party likely to win an overall majority during the May 7 vote, Plaid Cymru – meaning the Party of Wales —  a pro-independence socialist party, hopes to team up with others to propel the opposition center-left Labor Party into power and extract concessions for Welsh nationalism, Agence France-Presse reports.

The party is all set to retain three of Wales' 40 seats in the British parliament's 650-member House of Commons and win three further target seats in a clear bid to replicate the rapid advance of their ideological soul mates in Scotland: the pro-independence Scottish National Party.

They have pledged to join forces with the SNP and the Greens to push the ruling center-right Conservatives out of power and prop up a Labor minority government.

All three parties are opposed to spending cuts to eliminate Britain's deficit — something pledged by both the Conservatives and Labor.

Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925, chiefly as a Welsh language pressure group. They won their first parliamentary seat in 1966.

Leanne Wood, a 43-year-old trenchant republican, has been in charge of Plaid since 2012.