Alex Salmond is taking part in Holyrood’s main weekly question time event today for the last time as first minister of Scotland.
You can keep update with the First Minister Question’s on the live Press and Journal blog.
He has held the role since May 2007 – making him the longest serving head of the Scottish Government since Holyrood was established in 1999 – which means today marks the end of an incredible era of politics that made headlines around the world.
Mr Salmond, MSP for Aberdeenshire East, caused shockwaves in 2004 when he took on the SNP leadership for the second time on the basis he was applying for the job of first minister.
At the time few thought the 59-year-old would be able to pull off such a feat but his dream was realised three years later when the SNP won enough seats at Holyrood to form a minority government.
Deft political footwork, a range of populist policies and bags of charisma meant that not even the controversial release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and the way Mr Salmond handled Donald Trump’s application to build a golf resort in Aberdeenshire derailed the party’s sway amongst the electorate.
The SNP literally broke the parliamentary system – designed to ensure that no party would be able to secure a monopoly of seats – in 2011 to form a majority administration.
This enabled Mr Salmond, who joined the SNP in 1973 and served as the MP for Banff and Buchan between 1987-2010, to bring forward his cherished independence referendum.
It was a passionate and hard fought campaign for the MSP and while that battle was lost on September 18 he leaves the SNP is better shape than ever.
No one could have imagined that a consequence of losing a fight the party has fought for 80 years could have resulted in its membership swelling to around 83,000 members – making it the third largest political movement in the UK.
Mr Salmond steps down as SNP leader tomorrow – a job he has held for most of the last 24 years – and will at long last hand over the reigns to his faithful deputy Nicola Sturgeon who has been by his side for 10 years.
He has said he has enjoyed first minister’s question time – the weekly part theatre, part serious business joust – during which his political opponents try and land a glove on him.
By in large Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats rarely did over his seven-year tenure but he was often accused of giving questions to answers he was never asked.
As he bows out today Mr Salmond has warned his rivals that they were will get little “benefit” from facing Ms Sturgeon in the debating chamber because she has a reputation as a formidable and fiery debater with a good eye for details.
The soon-to-retired first minister, a St Andrews University economics and history graduate, has said his greatest achievement was restoring free university education.
Mr Salmond has also said he was confident that Scotland would become independent in his lifetime while acknowledging there was great speculation over how long he would live.
Nicola Sturgeon will officially take over as the first minister of Scotland next Wednesday. This weekend it will be revealed who will be the next deputy leader of the SNP. MSPs Keith Brown, Angela Constance and MP Stewart Hosie are in the running but it is not a given one of them will be Ms Sturgeon’s number two in government.
Ms Constance has already ruled out that role and if Mr Hosie wins the deputy SNP leadership it is likely that an MSP will take on the role. There has been speculation that it could be John Swinney who may take on a joint finance secretary/deputy first minister brief. However, this is probably unlikely given he is a former SNP leader.
The Press and Journal will be posting about first minister’s question time at midday on our website.