Salmond, former Scotland’s first minister, formed the party

DHe surprisingly announced former Scottish Prime Minister Alex Salmond that he would go to the polls on 6 May with a newly established “Independence Party”. The party, which goes by the name of “Alba”, only wants to compete for a second vote with the Scottish National Party (SNP) and thereby help the independence movement to gain a “super majority” in Parliament in Edinburgh Does, in an online presentation on Salmond on Friday.

SNP President and incumbent Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon understood the former SNP boss’s advance declaration as a declaration of war. A party spokesman on Friday introduced Salmond with “selfishness” and denied him the ability to hold political office. Salmond has been involved in a political war with his successor for nearly three years, on the surface of which he faces allegations of sexual harassment.

First vote should go to SNP

Salmond announced that she would not run any candidate in the constituencies and would run as a pure list party. Scotland practices a two-vote system similar to German. 73 MPs go to Parliament as direct candidates, 56 as representatives of party lists. Salmond claimed on Friday that his party could succeed without harming his former party. The Alba party’s message is “positive” as it will also call on the SNP to vote for the first time. In early remarks, however, observers spoke of a split in the independence camp, which until now had been fully represented by the SNP (and to a lesser extent by the Scottish Greens).

Salmond wants to top the list as the leader of the party, which has been described in some newspapers as a “sensational comeback”. He resigned from his post after what he saw as a lost independence referendum in 2014 by the government and long-time head of the SNP and only represented the party in the Westminster parliament until he lost his mandate in 2017 . He has since remained in the background and has only made headlines since his high-profile litigation with Sturgeon.