London, Thanasis Gavos

The decision to resign as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and from power was confirmed at an emergency press conference in Edinburgh by Scottish Prime Minister Hamza Yousaf.

As he announced, he will remain at the helm of local government until the SNP nominates his successor.

The development comes just 398 days after the 39-year-old politician became leader of the SNP and the Scottish devolved government, succeeding the resigned Nicola Sturgeon.

Mr Yussaf made the decision to step down as he realized at the weekend that he would not be able to win confidence votes in himself and the government due to be held later in the week following two no-confidence motions announced by the opposition.

The censure proposals followed the collapse of the SNP’s governing coalition with the Greens last week. Greens ministers disagreed with the outgoing prime minister’s scrapping of environmental targets, which kicked them out of government. Their ouster left Mr. Yusuf leading a minority government.

With the Greens saying they would vote in favor of the motion of censure of the rest of the opposition parties, Mr Youssef’s future rested on the vote of Ash Regan, the sole MP from the Alba party, which is led by the SNP’s longtime leader and longtime prime minister. Scotland’s Alex Salmond.

Mr Salmond has become a fierce critic of the SNP and has put a number of conditions on a positive vote for the SNP, which Hamza Youssaf appears not to have accepted.

As Mr Yousaf commented in his resignation statement, “I clearly underestimated the level of pain and disruption I caused the Green Party”. He added that for a minority government to govern effectively “trust in working with the opposition is clearly fundamental”.

He added that he is not willing to undermine his values ​​and principles simply to stay in power.

Former Scottish deputy prime minister John Sweeney, considered a union figure, stands out among the possible successors. However, it remains unclear whether the opposition will insist on a motion of censure against the government.