 | 'I am launching my candidacy to be first minister.' Alex Salmond MP, 15 th July 2004. |  |
| 'I am launching my candidacy to be first minister.' Alex Salmond MP, 15 th July 2004. | |
ALEX Salmond yesterday cast himself as the saviour of Scottish democracy as he launched an
eleventh-hour attempt to become not only the new leader of the SNP, but the next first minister.
Speaking the day before the close of nominations, Mr Salmond said he had been persuaded to reapply for the job he left four years ago by a huge number of e-mails, letters and telephone calls from party members.
His announcement, revealed exclusively in later editions of The Herald yesterday, was accompanied
by "a degree of surprise and humility", he said, confirming that he had spoken to Sir Sean Connery,
the SNP's most famous supporter, about his decision, and describing him as "more than
enthusiastic".
Mr Salmond, 49, said: "From today, I am not just launching a campaign to be SNP leader. Today I
am launching my candidacy to be first minister of Scotland."
The Banff and Buchan MP said he would carry on at Westminster if chosen by the party's 8500
members in August, and stand in the next general election, before returning to Holyrood in 2007.
In the interim, he wanted Nicola Sturgeon to be the party's deputy, and de facto leader in the Scottish
Parliament. Ms Sturgeon, who had been running for leader, confirmed she was ending her bid and
applying for the deputy's post to run with Mr Salmond instead.
"His prescription for success is in tune with my own ideas for the future of the SNP," she said.
Kenny MacAskill, who had been running as Ms Sturgeon's deputy, also withdrew, and pledged his
support to the joint Salmond-Sturgeon ticket.
The other leadership candidates Ð Roseanna Cunningham and Mike Russell Ð said they would stay in
the race.
Mr Salmond, speaking in the same hotel where he announced he was standing down as SNP leader
four years ago, said: "I did not expect to be ever doing that job again. However, time and
circumstances change."
He was questioned on why he changed his mind after emphatically ruling himself out of contention.
After John Swinney quit as SNP leader last month, he quoted General Sherman's remark on being
asked to run for president following the American Civil War: "If nominated, I'll decline. If drafted,
I'll defer. And if elected, I'll resign."
Mr Salmond joked that he had mixed up his generals, and had meant to quote Douglas MacArthur: "I
shall return." He shrugged and smiled as he told the news conference in Aber-deen: "I changed my
mind."
Blaming Labour for public disillusion with devolution, he said: "I did not expect, after waiting 300
years for a parliament, that it would allow itself to sink so quickly into something approaching public
disrepute.
"I did not anticipate, after the rebirth of Scottish confidence and democracy, that we should have
made such pitiful progress as a nation. The SNP must respect and foster the democratic and cultural
soul of Scotland."
After under-performing recently, he said the SNP had to "rediscover its heart and reassert its social
democratic ethos" in order to connect with the 73% of Scots voters who say they would be willing to
vote for the party.
In an attempt to end the infighting that undermined Mr Swinney, Mr Salmond also offered an
amnesty to back-bench rebels. He said he wanted to use all the party's talents, and if he were leader
everyone would "start with a blank sheet of paper".
However, Mr Salmond, who is now a strong odds-on favourite with the bookmakers to win, warned
party members had better decide if they wanted to follow him to independence or not.
Opposition parties mocked Mr Salmond's would-be return, saying it showed the SNP was becoming a one-man party.
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