Achi news desk-
The decision to end the power-sharing agreement between the SNP and the Scottish Greens led to Mr Yousaf’s downfall as First Minister, leading to his resignation on Monday.
He accepted that he had underestimated the response of the Greens, who were so outraged by the move that they announced they would vote against Mr Yousaf in a vote of no confidence in his leadership.
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The First Minister, after considering his future over the weekend, announced on Monday that he would give up the job, waiting until a successor is found.
Mr Salmond said Alba’s Holyrood leader and sole MLA Ash Regan could have given Mr Yousaf “a helping hand”, possibly providing him with the support he needed to win a vote of confidence.
Humza Yousaf (Image: (Andrew Milligan / PA))The former prime minister – who resigned in 2014 after the independence referendum – also insisted that he was “sad” that Mr Yousaf had resigned.
Mr Salmond said: “In my view he should have accepted the support offered by Ash Regan of Alba, another independence party, and faced his internal SNP critics.
“His dismissal from the Greens may have been sudden but in fact it was long overdue.
“Now, we’ll never know if, freed from wretched Greens ministers and policy disasters, Humza might have become a very different Prime Minister.”
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With Mr Yousaf’s successor likely to have to win support from the seven Green MSPs at Holyrood before becoming Scotland’s next first minister, Mr Salmond said that left his former party in an “absurd position with the Green Party saying who can and that the prime minister can”. t be”.
He added: “The SNP on the ground should take clear lessons from this and apply them during the upcoming leadership contest.
“The Green Party, an outfit that does not consider independence as any kind of top priority, is clearly trying to choose the leader of the SNP.
Ash Regan (Image: (Jane Barlow / PA))“They were even going to vote for a Tory unionist motion to unseat a nationalist Prime Minister just because they were in a fit of rage.
“Their behavior over the last few days should completely rule them out as coalition partners to any self-respecting SNP activist.”
However, a deal with Mr Salmond’s Alba Party may have proved unpalatable to some in the SNP, with long-serving MP Pete Wishart saying on Sunday that the former prime minister “wants to influence our Government and he must be told quite clearly. that can never, ever happen.”
Fellow SNP MP Stewart McDonald was more blunt, saying a deal with Mr Salmond would “go down like a bucket of sick cold with voters”.
Mr Yousaf, as he announced his resignation in Bute House on Monday, stressed that he was not willing to “make deals with anyone in order to retain power”.
