Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish government and a powerful figure in the drive for Scottish independence, said on Wednesday that she would step down after more than eight years in the role.
She said her decision, which was unexpected, came “from a place of duty and of love” and was not a reaction to short-term pressures.
“This decision comes from a deeper and longer-term assessment,” Sturgeon, 52, said during a news conference at Bute House, her official residence in Edinburgh.
“I know it seems sudden, but I have been wrestling with it, with oscillating levels of intensity, for some weeks.” She said she would stay in the role until her successor was in place.
Sturgeon’s party, the Scottish National Party, remains the dominant political force in Scotland, though her departure comes at a particularly fraught time for the party, with a dispute over a new policy intended to make it easier for people to legally change their gender, and debate within the party about plans for a second referendum on Scottish independence.
The push for independence is a founding goal of the party, and Sturgeon has been at the forefront of the continued efforts for Scotland to liberate itself from the UK.
“The cause of independence is so much bigger than any one individual,” Sturgeon said on Wednesday. “I believe I have led this country closer to independence,” she said, noting that Scotland was “in the final phase of that journey”.
Sturgeon is Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister and took over from her predecessor in 2014 on the heels of Scottish voters rejecting independence from the rest of the UK in a referendum.
Last month, Sturgeon said in an interview with the BBC that she had “plenty in the tank” to continue leading Scotland and was “nowhere near ready” to step down from the role.
She has recently been embroiled in a dispute over the Scottish government’s policy of gender self-declaration, which had erupted after a convicted rapist, Isla Bryson, was incarcerated in a women’s prison.
New York Times News Service
