Asked about his abiding reminiscence of Mr Salmond, he stated: “Obviously, I worked very closely with Alex Salmond, and I suspect the moment where I was most touched by what he did was when I was driving to Edinburgh on the day after the 2007 election, and I listened to him speaking on the radio when he arrived in Edinburgh, and he talked about Scotland had changed and changed forever and would never be the same again because of our election win in 2007.”
“And it was a deeply emotional moment for me, because I heard my party leader at the time indicating that we’d taken a colossal step forward on our journey to independence, and I fondly remember that moment, and what it meant to me is signifying the progress that we had made.”
He was additionally requested about Mr Salmond’s break with the SNP, and the “bitterness” that arose between Mr Salmond and his protegee Nicola Sturgeon in the previous few years.
The First Minister replied: “Obviously, it’s been a very difficult few years, and there will be time to reflect on all of those issues in the days to come. But I think today, I think all of us can recognise the formidable contribution that Alex Salmond made.”
Mark Donfried, director of the Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, instructed the PA information company stated he witnessed Mr Salmond’s collapse on the convention in North Macedonia.
“He was here the last few days, he gave excellent participation two days ago at the panel discussion,” he stated.
“He was really in the best of spirits, the best of health, and I was sitting across from him at lunch yesterday when all of a sudden he just went out and fell into the arms of a colleague of mine on the other side of the table.”
“I immediately got up and ran to call an ambulance and when I came back, he was on the floor.”
Mr Salmond served as first minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014 and was chief of the SNP on two events, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014.
He resigned as first minister after the 2014 Scottish independence referendum resulted in a 55% to 45% vote to remain within the UK.
He launched his rival Scottish independence get together, Alba, in 2021 after his relationship together with his successor Nicola Sturgeon fractured.
His closing submit on X, previously Twitter, shortly earlier than his dying, ended “Scotland is a country not a county”.
Tributes from political contemporaries praised him for his many years in politics and efforts to maneuver Scotland nearer to independence.
His former colleague Nicola Sturgeon acknowledged the “breakdown” of her relationship with Mr Salmond however praised him for taking Scotland to the “brink of independence”.
“He was my mentor, and for more than a decade we formed one of the most successful partnerships in UK politics,” she wrote.
A commemoration for Mr Salmond was additionally held within the North Macedonian metropolis of Ohrid, attended by President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, who’s reported to have prolonged her condolences over the dying of the previous first minister.
A Foreign Office spokesperson stated: “We are supporting the family of Alex Salmond, former first minister of Scotland, who died in North Macedonia on Saturday. “
“The FCDO is in touch with the local authorities.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1961433/alex-salmon-family-tribute