A new party with an old friend: Scottish former Prime Minister Alex Salmond wants to return to the political stage and bring the country back to the European Union.
Former Scotland Prime Minister Alex Salmond has announced the formation of a new party and with it comes his surprise political comeback. The Elba Party, which wants to campaign for the independence of Scotland from Great Britain, will run for parliamentary elections in early May, the 66-year-old said in Edinburgh on Friday.
The former chairman of the Scottish National Party (SNP) was the head of government from 2007 to 2014. After an independent independence referendum, he resigned. Along with his successor, the current head of government Nicola Sturgeon, he got into a dispute over sexual harassment allegations against him. He was later acquitted of the charges.
Opponents of his former party friends
Even if Salmond insisted that the new party was not a direct contestant of the SNP, he could dispute Sturgeon’s votes. Alba will be a “new political force” aiming to achieve a “qualified majority” for independence in May. He himself and so far three other Alba members want to run for the election.
The SNP is hoping to win in the parliamentary elections on 6 May. Sturgeon, after a new referendum and exit from the UK, wants Scotland to rejoin the European Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson strictly rejected another referendum.
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