Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater has said that talks between her party and the SNP about entering a formal agreement at Holyrood revolve around "co-operation, not coalition".
Ms Slater said that she "wouldn't expect" any deal between the parties to mirror the format set down by alliances between the Liberal Democrats with both Labour and the Conservatives at Holyrood and Westminster in recent years.
The newly-elected MSP said that talks with Nicola Sturgeon's SNP were in a very early stage and may not be resolved for months, and that both parties were looking for common ground.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon in talks with Greens over 'groundbreaking' cooperation deal
The First Minister announced yesterday that her SNP Government is holding talks with the Scottish Greens over a possible "formal cooperation agreement".
The First Minister said the move could see Green MSPs entering the Scottish Government as ministers.
Structured talks, supported by the civil service, will now take place with a view to reaching a deal between the SNP and the Greens.
Ms Slater is no-leader with Patrick Harvie
Speaking this morning, Ms Slater said that the aim was to establish a "new kind of politics".
She told BBC Radio Scotland: "What we're hoping to achive is to create a different kind of working environment in the Scottish Parliament to prioritize the kind of things that really matter to the Scottish Green Party - which is a fair and green recovery from the pandemic.
"To put practical actions in place to tackle the climate crisis. We're the party that has the policies that are needed to tackle the climate crisis and of course we're pleased the government has recognised that and reached out to say 'right, let's work on this together.
"Let's take a serious stand on this and take some serious action."
Ms Slater did not rule out Green MSPs taking ministerial roles, saying that systems used in other countries could provide a blueprint.
READ MORE: Lorna Slater says Scottish Greens will have more influence than ever
She said: "The New Zealand Greens, for example, have a co-operation arrangement where they hold ministerial positions but are not part of cabinet.
"The co-operation agreement means that those Green ministers take responsibility for very specific areas. I think it's climate change and housing."
Ms Slater added: "We're very excited about going into these formal talks. The climate crisis is the number one crisis that we're all dealing with, and it's very exciting that we do have a new kind of politics on the table."
She continued: "We are at the absolute start of the process. The Scottish government and he Scottish Greens are going in with optimism a spirit of co-operation and a genuine desire to do politics differently.
"That's where we are at the starting block right now and we'll all have to see where it comes to in a couple of months time."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel