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LONDON — Alex Salmond, the previous first minister of Scotland who for many years championed Scotland’s independence from the U.Okay. and almost completed it, has died. He was 69.
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Salmond, who was one of the vital divisive determine in British politics on the flip of the century and who because the then chief of the Scottish Nationwide Celebration took Scotland to the brink of independence within the 2014 referendum, died within the North Macedonia lake-resort city of Ohrid, native media reported.
“Sadly, Alex Salmond, the previous first minister of Scotland who was one of many panellists at yesterday’s cultural diplomacy discussion board that was held in Ohrid, died out of the blue right this moment,” based on a press release from the workplace of former North Macedonia President Gjorgje Ivanov.
Tributes poured in from throughout the political spectrum, with U.Okay. Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the Labour Celebration calling him a “monumental determine” of each Scottish and British politics.
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“He leaves behind a long-lasting legacy,” Starmer mentioned. “As first minister of Scotland, he cared deeply about Scotland’s heritage, historical past and tradition, in addition to the communities he represented.”
Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014, and was chief of the Scottish Nationwide Celebration on two events, from 1990 to 2000, and from 2004 to 2014. Salmond led the independence marketing campaign within the referendum in 2014, however misplaced, gaining 45% of the vote, and subsequently resigned from the highest job and changed by his long-time ally, Nicola Sturgeon. Their subsequent cut up dominated Scottish politics for years.
“Clearly, I can’t fake that the occasions of the previous few years which led to the breakdown of our relationship didn’t occur, and it will not be proper for me to strive,” Sturgeon mentioned after studying of Salmond’s demise. “Nonetheless, it stays the truth that for a few years Alex was an extremely important determine in my life. He was my mentor, and for greater than a decade we fashioned one of the vital profitable partnerships in U.Okay politics.”
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In 2019, Salmond was charged with sexual assault and tried rape after allegations by 9 ladies who had labored with him as first minister or for the social gathering. Salmond referred to as the costs “deliberate fabrications for a political objective.” Salmond was acquitted after a trial in March 2020.
A 12 months later, he created a brand new social gathering referred to as Alba — the Scottish Gaelic phrase for Scotland — that made few inroads into Scottish politics and sought a brand new independence referendum come what could.
The present SNP first minister, John Swinney, mentioned that he was “deeply shocked and saddened on the premature demise” of Salmond.
“Over a few years, Alex made an infinite contribution to political life, not simply inside Scotland, however throughout the U.Okay. and past,” he mentioned. “He took the Scottish Nationwide Celebration from the fringes of Scottish politics into authorities and led Scotland so near changing into an impartial nation.”
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Salmond had mentioned that he realized to dream of an impartial Scotland at his grandfather’s knee, and selected to hitch the SNP at college in 1973 when his English girlfriend poked an excessive amount of enjoyable at his separatist sentiments.
Salmond’s tutorial {and professional} background ready him to turn into Scotland’s most economically optimistic and visionary politician. At St. Andrew’s College. he double-majored in medieval historical past, reflecting his love of a Caledonia misplaced, and economics. In his 20s, he labored as an economist first for Britain’s regional authorities in Scotland after which on the Royal Financial institution of Scotland, the place he analyzed the nation’s most dynamic business, North Sea oil.
He received a seat within the U.Okay. Parliament in 1987, and inside three years was social gathering chief. He supported Tony Blair’s Labour authorities within the late Nineties to create a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh, a reform that stopped in need of independence, however gave his homeland a style of self-government for the primary time since its 1707 union with England.
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Salmond then had a really public discussion board to push his dream of full independence ahead — his authorities had an array of powers particularly on social points — and managed to persuade the federal government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to name a referendum. Up till the outcomes have been recognized, it had been thought-about an in depth name.
Although the independence marketing campaign misplaced, Salmond’s SNP managed to capitalize its help and has dominated Scottish politics since. The SNP has been the Edinburgh-based authorities since, although it suffered an enormous setback on this 12 months’s U.Okay.-wide common election, when it misplaced a overwhelming majority of the seats it held within the Home of Commons to Labour. The subsequent Scottish election is because of happen in 2026.
— Konstantin Testorides contributed to this report from Skopje, North Macedonia.
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