List of First Ministers of Scotland

The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland, and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish government policy. The First Minister is a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and is nominated by the Scottish Parliament before being officially appointed by the monarch. Following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament and devolved Scottish Government were established, to give Scotland some measure of self governance in its domestic affairs. This devolution resulted in administrative and legislative changes to the way Scotland was governed, and resulted in the establishment of a post of First Minister to be head of the devolved Scottish Government. Following the first Scottish Parliamentary elections on 6 May 1999, Scottish Labour Party leader Donald Dewar was nominated as First Minister, and was officially appointed by the Queen on 17 May at a ceremony in the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Currently, the First Minister of Scotland is Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party (SNP), who succeeded Alex Salmond in November 2014 following his announcement that he would resign the premiership in the wake of the defeat of the Yes Scotland campaign in the Scottish independence referendum, 2014. Sturgeon leads the fourth government of the Scottish Parliament which was elected by the people of Scotland firstly in 2007 as a minority government, and re-elected in 2011, where they formed the first majority government in the Scottish Parliament.

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