Funeral of former First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond

The Scotsman

Former first minister Alex Salmond has been remembered as not just the political leader who took Scotland “so close to his dream of independence”, but as a “dear friend”.  Tributes were paid to the 69-year-old at a funeral service on Tuesday following his sudden death in North Macedonia earlier this month.  The former SNP leader, who later went on to set up the Alba Party, had been speaking at a conference in the country when he suffered a heart attack.

Transcript

00:00I'm Alison Campsey from the Scotsman. I'm in Stricken in Aberdeenshire where the funeral

00:15of former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, has just been held.

00:23Stricken was Mr Salmond's home village. Stricken Parish Church was a place where he would have

00:27attended many times. And today friends, family and close political colleagues gathered there

00:33for a service which was a very private affair. It's often described as a titan of Scottish

00:42politics. Following his death in North Macedonia, phrases such as political heavyweight were

00:49used repeatedly for the man who led the independence movement at the height of its powers.

00:58Today it felt like a very quiet farewell for Mr Salmond as he was taken from Stricken Parish

01:05Church, the cemetery on the edge of the village, through the high street as a small number

01:11of people turned out to line the streets and pay their respects to a guy who is very fondly

01:17remembered locally. Speaking to folk here today, everyone had nice things to say about

01:28Alex Salmond as a person, a man, a neighbour, a friend, a villager, someone who really helped

01:36people and that's something over the past while I've really learned about Alex Salmond

01:40was that connection he had to the ground level and that great deal of care that he took about

01:45people and the problems that they were facing.

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