Scottish Prime Minister Yousaf resigns after coalition collapse

AFP

Prime Minister Humza Yousaf

NOS News•today, 1:34 PM•Amended today, 3:49 PM

Scottish Prime Minister Humza Yousaf resigns. His position already faltered after his party, the Scottish National Party (SNP), canceled its collaboration with the coalition party The Greens last week.

Initially, Yousaf wanted to continue as a minority government, but he received no support from the opposition. Because a vote of no confidence would be voted on later this week, Yousaf decided to keep the honor to himself.

“I have come to the conclusion that mending our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm,” Yousaf said at a news conference in Edinburgh. He will remain as prime minister until a successor is found.

The 39-year-old Yousaf took office as Prime Minister of Scotland more than a year ago. He took over from Nicola Sturgeon. She resigned as Prime Minister of Scotland after eight years. Sturgeon’s husband is suspected of fiddling with party money.

UK correspondent Fleur Launspach:

“For just one year, Humza Yousaf had served as First Minister of Scotland. During that time, he failed to achieve much: confidence in his SNP party had already shrunk following the departure of Nicola Sturgeon and a party finance scandal.

Yousaf was not in the best of circumstances to lead the party, but ultimately he stumbled over his own political error: he thought he could maintain control by expelling the Greens from his coalition, but instead this led to a motion of distrust. To survive this, he suddenly needed support from allies on the opposition benches, support which he had apparently squandered. That is why he decided to keep the honor to himself and resign.

This marks a pivotal moment for the SNP, the party of Scottish independence, which has long dominated Scottish politics but now appears to be imploding. This also has implications for the distribution of the national electorate in the UK general election, to be held later this year.”

The article is in Netherlands

Tags: Scottish Prime Minister Yousaf resigns coalition collapse

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