Humza Yousaf will be Scotland’s First Minister, replacing Nicola Sturgeon. Until now Minister of Health has been chosen as the new leader of the independent Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and will therefore become head of the Scottish Executive. He will be the first Muslim to hold the post.
Yousaf, who ran as the continuity candidate to maintain Sturgeon’s progressive line, won the majority support of the more than 70,000 SNP members, who voted in primary elections for more than two weeks.
A second-generation immigrant, Yousaf will become the first Muslim to take up the post of Chief Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP). A native of Glasgow, of a Kenyan mother and a Pakistani father -both arrived in the United Kingdom in 1960-, at 37 Yousaf took over from Sturgeon for the highest political office in Scotland.
Until now Scottish Health Minister, Yousaf is seen as a progressive politician who has beaten the other two contenders, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, for the post of Scottish chief executive.
In a center-left formation “Yousaf will lead and inspire people across the nation to vote for independence,” his campaign manager and regional culture minister, Neil Gray, told EFE.
An admirer of Sturgeon’s work during his more than eight years in office, Yousaf is committed to continuing his social policy that has garnered so much success for training, with, for example, financial aid to recent parents to facilitate their return to the job market.
Despite everything, her management at the head of the Health portfolio has been highly criticized by her opponents and the opposition, who can make her the center of their attacks. 62% disapprove of his management of the emergency medical service and 40% of the population does not see him as “competent”, according to a YouGov house survey.
Like his greatest rival, Kate Forbes -follower of an evangelical church-, Yousaf is marked by his deep religious convictions and in these last days of the campaign he began his fast for Ramadan.
