“As the National Party of Wales, the party's aims shall be: to secure independence for Wales in Europe." Since its founding in 1925, independence has remained a core principle of Plaid Cymru – the above quote even forms the second line of its constitution. For the first time, Plaid secured the most seats in the next Welsh Parliament as Labour lost control of the Senedd for the first time since devolution in 1999, with even first minister Eluned Morgan a casualty of Labour’s catastrophic losses. Yet in a change of tone from previous decades, Plaid’s leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has not led with an independence campaign, with more talk of a referendum coming from their political rivals, who have tried to warn voters that the party will introduce it through the “back door” once in power. During its annual conference in Newport in February, the topic was not raised once during Mr ap Iorwerth’s speech , nor was it mentioned during the manifesto launch in Wrexham.…