THE First Minister has thanked the people of Scotland in her first post to social media since announcing her resignation.
Sturgeon quote tweeted a clip of her speech delivered at Bute House on Wednesday morning thanking Scots and stressed that nothing "I do in the future will ever come close" to the job of First Minister.
🏴 To all the people of Scotland - whether you voted for me or not - please know that being your First Minister has been the privilege of my life. Nothing - absolutely nothing - I do in future will ever come close. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. https://t.co/ZbmmkzyHwK
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) February 15, 2023
The longest-serving – and first female – First Minister told a hastily arranged press conference she will remain in office while the SNP selects her successor.
“In my head and in my heart I know that time is now. That it’s right for me, for my party and my country,” she said.
Sturgeon, who guided the nation through the coronavirus pandemic and led the SNP to repeated election victories at the UK, Scottish and local levels, acknowledged the “physical and mental impact” of the role.
“If the question is: can I battle on for another few months? Then the answer is yes, of course, I can,” the 52-year-old said.
“Since my very first moments in the job I have believed a part of serving well would be to know almost instinctively when the time is right to make way for someone else,” she said from her residence at Bute House in Edinburgh.
“But if the question is: Can I give this job everything it demands and deserves for another year, let alone for the remainder of this parliamentary term, give it every ounce of energy that it needs in the way that I have strived to do every day for the last eight years? The answer honestly is different.”
