A veteran of the Scottish political scene, who is preparing to take the helm of the country. John Swinney became the new leader of the SNP independence party this Monday, May 6, a week after the resignation of Humza Yousaf, whom he should also succeed as Prime Minister. “I am deeply honored to have been appointed leader of the SNP,” said on John Swinney, a leading figure in the SNP for around twenty years, and the only candidate to have stood. He will have the difficult mission of unifying a divided party and relaunching a struggling independence cause.
Aged 60, John Swinney is close to former Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who resigned last year and whose image has since been tarnished by an investigation into the SNP’s finances. Under his mandate, he was notably Deputy Prime Minister from 2014 to 2023, a record for longevity in this position.
Even more than his predecessor Humza Yousaf, John Swinney therefore embodies continuity within an SNP which is losing ground in the polls and threatened in its strongholds by the rise of the Labor Party a few months before the British legislative elections. “Distancing himself from (the legacy of Nicolas Sturgeon) will be a challenge” for him, said James Mitchell, professor of political science at the University of Edinburgh, to AFP. But he is “a true party man, with unwavering loyalty. He is very appreciated within the SNP for that,” he adds. Last year, John Swinney did not appear in the internal vote which saw the victory of Humza Yousaf, resigning from his post as Deputy Prime Minister and then pleading for the arrival in power of a “new generation “.
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Born in Edinburgh, John Swinney, son of a mechanic, joined the SNP at the age of 15. He rose quickly through the ranks of the party, becoming its national secretary in the mid-1980s. He was then elected to the British Parliament in 1997, then to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Before holding several ministerial positions, particularly in the Finance, Post-Covid 19 Pandemic Recovery and Education. He had to overcome two motions of no confidence in 2020 and 2021 after criticism of his management.
With a lean physique, bald head and rectangular glasses, John Swinney already led the SNP, between 2000 and 2004, when this party was in opposition in Scotland. The SNP then collapsed, losing almost all of its MPs at Westminster in 2001 and retaining only 22 in the Scottish Parliament in 2003, which pushed it to resign the following year. He then saw his career relaunched in 2007 after the large victory of the SNP, which then became the leading Scottish political force. “I am not an interim leader,” he insisted last week, promising to lead the SNP beyond the next British legislative elections this year and into the elections to renew Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament, in 2026 .
In presenting his candidacy last week, John Swinney promised to “unite the SNP and Scotland for independence” and to “make compromises” in Parliament where his party alone does not have an absolute majority to govern , emphasizing the need for dialogue. Whoever becomes Prime Minister could choose to renew an alliance with the Greens, whose ousting from the coalition government by Humza Yousaf last week precipitated the latter’s fall. As a sign of openness, he also assured that Kate Forbes, considered to run against him with a view to leading the SNP but who ultimately gave up, would occupy “a significant place” in his team.