By Laia Serrano i Sorroca | Staff Writer
Sturgeon’s political successor, Humza Yousaf, is officially appointed First Minister of Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation hit the headlines almost two months ago. Now, only a few weeks after her departure, the Scottish executive has a new leader, Humza Yousaf, who has also been put in charge of the Scottish National Party (SNP).
Humza Yousaf began his political career in 2005 when he joined the Scottish National Party while studying at the University of Glasgow. Ever since that moment, he has dedicated his professional life to politics, progressing from being a parliamentary assistant to the first-ever Muslim member of the Parliament of Scotland – Bashir Ahmad – to now becoming the first Scottish non-white and Muslim First Minister. His election as Head of Government – and as leader of the SNP – denotes political continuity from the Sturgeon era, due to his loyalty towards her. Nevertheless, his election was not uncontested. Instead, he had to stand against two candidates from his own party, who also stood in the party votes to fill the vacancy left by Sturgeon. His main opponent, Kate Forbes, received 47% of the members’ support, compared to the 52% obtained by Yousaf.
While Nicola Sturgeon was a beloved figure in the pro-independence movement, Humza Yousaf is a new face and has yet to make a name for himself amongst the electorate. Indeed, his first days as First Minister have been far from easy. Firstly, shortly after he announced his candidacy to replace his now predecessor, he was accused of not supporting the LGBTIQ+ community and its rights, as a result of his absence from a vote on a bill that protected such rights, back in 2014. Although he strongly rejected such accusations, his political opponents referred to his religious beliefs in order to justify these allegations, to which he answered that they had nothing to do with his absence and affirmed that, had he been present, he would have voted in favor of the legislative proposal.
Moreover, in his third week in office, he had his first political encounter with the central government in London in an issue relating to a set of gender recognition reforms concerning the trans community, which were passed by the Parliament of Scotland in late 2022. The issue arose when Westminster decided to veto the act in order to prevent discrepancies between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, claiming that the Act would go against the principle of equality between all of the state territories. In the face of such statements, Yousaf has decided to challenge this veto and ask for a judicial review.
Further, Nicola Sturgeon and her husband have been at the center of the controversy in recent days, accused of misreporting SNP data and failing to meet transparency standards. Police have even conducted searches in their homes and arrested her husband, who has been released without charge. These events have not favored the popularity of the new leader, who has adopted a low profile and distanced himself from the incident.
Finally, as a leader of the pro-independence movement – and of Scotland – he has been given the task of leading the nation toward independence. However, there is now a great deal of pressure on him, since Sturgeon called for the celebration of a new referendum on independence to be held in October 2023, and caretaker British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has frontally opposed this option.
While it is true that his following steps remain yet to be seen, Yousaf stated, after being elected leader of the SNP, that “we will be the generation that delivers independence for Scotland”.