Humza Yousaf, 37, a Muslim and the son of Pakistani immigrants, is the new face of independence in Scotland. Yousaf prevailed over the two candidates, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, with whom he was competing to pick up the baton from Nicola Sturgeon as chief minister amid the serious crisis facing the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Sturgeon announced his resignation six weeks ago, amid the divisions created by the Trans Scotland Act and after the fiasco of the second independence referendum, paralyzed by the High Court. Her husband, Peter Murrell, also resigned from his position as executive director of the SNP due to the scandal of his loans to the party and after the fall in the number of militants from 125,000 to 72,000 in recent years was made public.
More than 70,000 militants participated in the final contest for the succession of Sturgeon, which was marked mainly by the rivalry and contrast between Yousaf and Kate Forbes, daughter of evangelists and against abortion and gay marriage, with Ash Regan as third in discord.
Yousaf, who grew up politically in the shadow of Sturgeon (with whom he held the Justice, Transport and Health portfolios), has made an effort to draw a line between his religious beliefs and his political line. He was the candidate furthest to the left of the three in the running and defined himself as “socially progressive”, aligned with Sturgeon in the last battle of the Trans Law that contributed so much to his downfall.
During her campaign, Yousaf defended Sturgeon as “an exceptionally popular leader” and highlighted her achievements during her nine-year tenure. She announced her intention to continue to stand up to the British Government in court for the Trans Law and stressed her defense of Scottish independence, despite marking certain distances with her predecessor for her strategy.
Unlike Sturgeon, the new SNP leader believes that the next general election cannot be considered a de facto second referendum because Scots aged 16 and 17 will not be able to vote. Yousaf assured that the right time to call a new referendum will come when a majority of Scots calls for it (the “no” to independence won by 55% to 45% of the vote in 2014 and the polls currently reflect the division of Scottish society into two almost similar halves).
Yousaf offered himself during the campaign as the “experience” candidate, the youngest MP in Scottish history (at 26) and with a background of more than a decade in senior government positions. Sturgeon’s successor also promised to work for “unity and compromise” between the different factions of Scottish nationalism, after polarization caused by the independence leader in her final stretch.
Yousaf achieved 52% of the vote to Kate Forbes’ 48%, including second preferences. Her narrow victory over her rival, who harshly criticized Sturgeon during the campaign, reflects the deep divisions within the ranks of Scottish nationalism.
The new Glasgow-born chief minister, the father of two daughters, called himself “proud to be Scottish and European” and vowed to work for Scotland’s return to the European Union, after implicitly criticizing the British government over its human rights record.
“We will always celebrate immigrants and everything they bring to this country,” Yousaf stressed. “We will act decisively to alleviate the cost of living crisis (…) We need to be independent now more than ever, and we will be the generation that achieves independence.”
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