Political crisis in Scotland as First Minister resigns

– International news – Tasnim News Agency, Tagus Zeitung Alman newspaper wrote in an article: Hamza Yusuf announced his resignation from the position of Prime Minister of Scotland and leader The National Party of this country (SNP) appeared in front of the press this Monday afternoon and said: Now he only wants to stay in this position until the SNP elects his successor. The party has 28 days to do so.

On 29 March 2023, Hamza Youssef became Scotland’s first First Minister and the first Muslim leader of a modern Western European democracy, succeeding Nicola Sturgeon who resigned. But just over a year later, he is now stepping down after collapsing a coalition government with the Greens.

Last week, Youssef abruptly rejected a power-sharing deal between his SNP and the Scottish National Party. And the Green Party ended the hope that it would be able to lead the minority government, but immediately the opposition parties proposed a vote of no confidence in him. One of its leaders has faltered in the past year. The party has also been embroiled in internal disputes over how it tried to win over voters in a vote of confidence.

Youssef had previously said he was “absolutely confident” that he could win the vote of confidence from political opponents, but As of Monday, his bid to negotiate with other parties to bolster his minority government appeared to have been ineffective.

Patrick Harvey, the leader of the Scottish Greens, told BBC radio that Youssef had failed to convince his own party. to support him in getting the vote and therefore few options are left for Yusuf.

In this situation, the vote of confidence of the Scottish Parliament, which was supposed to be held on Wednesday, was in danger of being cancelled. Youssef prevented this by resigning.

The SNP holds 63 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament.

Youssef was the leader of the SNP for only 13 months and thus the First Minister of Scotland. . His predecessor, Alex Salmond, who now leads Alba’s small party, mockingly calls him “short Hamza”.

In March last year, Youssef succeeded Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish prime minister, who Zaman unexpectedly stepped aside. However, he was not popular with the people of Scotland and increasingly found himself at odds with his coalition partners from the Green Party. On several fronts, the Greens insisted on a more “progressive” path than Hamza Yusuf was inclined to take. There were also differences of opinion on energy policy.

Fierce protests in the Green faction sparked this month when Youssef scaled back the coalition’s 2030 pollution reduction targets. In general, many Green politicians in the coalition government criticized the SNP under Youssef as moving further and further to the right”. This led to calls for a vote on the continuation of the coalition among the Greens /p>

But last Thursday, Youssef sacked two of his Green ministers, apparently advised to do so to strengthen the SNP’s authority, an overnight policy move Self-destruction.

Without the Greens, the SNP has just 63 seats, while the opposition has 65. The Scottish Conservatives are quick to vote no-confidence against Joseph personally and the entire SNP government

In the end all Youssef had to do was resign. The SNP is now trying to repair the failed coalition with the Greens. What united the SNP and Alba It does, the goal is national independence for Scotland.

Youssef announced last week that he was breaking up his party’s coalition with the Scottish Greens after a dispute over climate targets, and announced that he wanted to lead a minority government.

Youssef apologized for the failure in the coalition when announcing his resignation. At the same time, he expressed confidence that his successor could successfully lead a minority government.

Now the SNP must nominate a candidate for the post. Former Deputy Prime Minister John Sweeney and MP Kate Forbes, who lost an internal party vote to Youssef in March 2023, are considered possible candidates. Health Minister Neil Gray and Education Minister Jenny Gilrot are also possible candidates. If the parliament does not vote for a new prime minister within 28 days, an early election will be held. In this situation, the opposition parties demanded an urgent vote. Scotland to separate from England