NICOLA Sturgeon has said her constituency has shown "the racists and the fascists that they are not welcome" after she retained her seat in the Holyrood election.
The First Minister was referring to an incident yesterday when she was approached by Holyrood candidate Jayda Fransen, and a man whose identity has not yet been confirmed, in her Glasgow Southside constituency.
WATCH: Nicola Sturgeon deals with far-right extremists at polling station
Fransen is a convicted racist and was a former deputy leader of fascist organisation Britain First. She is standing for election as an independent in Glasgow Southside.
A video posted online, filmed by the man, shows the pair walking towards Sturgeon outside Lorne Street Primary School polling station to “confront” her.
The SNP leader immediately steps away and brands Fransen a “fascist”.
Jayda and Dowson lowering the tone some more pic.twitter.com/DMq30X50kV
— Matthew Collins (@MattHopeNotHate) May 6, 2021
Although a member of the British Feedom Party, Fransen ran as an independent.
Sturgeon achieved 60.2% of the vote in her constituency while Fransen gained 0.4% along with other independents.
Speaking this afternoon, Sturgeon said: "Yesterday the constituency was targeted by far-right thugs, the far-right thug that led that confrontation got 46 votes and I am proud that once again that Glasgow Southside has shown the racists and the fascists that they are not welcome in Glasgow Southside, they are not welcome in Glasgow and they are not welcome anywhere in Scotland. And let that be a note of unity."
She went on: “At this stage I am extremely happy that the SNP appears to be on course for a fourth consecutive election victory and to be on course to have the privilege of forming a government again.
“If that is indeed the outcome of this election I pledge today to get back to work immediately to continue to steer this country through the crisis of Covid, to lead this country into recovery from Covid, and then, when the time is right, to offer this country the choice of a better future.”
LIVE: All the news from the Scottish Parliament election as seats are declared
The FM also paid tribute to her opponent Anas Sawar, saying they were in the “strange position” of actually quite liking each other.
“That can make it difficult to campaign against someone, but I congratulate him on his campaign,” she added.
Sarwar said: "Every single time the far-right hate has tried to come to the southside, we as a community have united against them and rejected them.
"Myself and Nicola Sturgeon might have many differences of opinion politically but when it comes to fighting bigotry and hatred and intolerance we, and large parts of Scotland, are united against the fascists."
Sturgeon added: “To my constituents, you do me a great honour in electing me to represent you and I give the commitment today that I have given on each occasion I am privileged to be elected to represent the constituency.
“Whether you voted for me or whether you voted for one of my opponents, I will do everything to represent you to the best of my ability.”
“Now looking beyond Glasgow Southside to Scotland as a whole, we are in the very, very early stages of a marathon counting operation that will run until probably tomorrow evening. So there is lots of votes, lots of constituencies yet to count before we know the final outcome of this election.
“But at this stage I am extremely happy that the SNP appears to be on course for a fourth consecutive election victory and to be on course to have the privilege of forming a government again.
“If that is indeed the outcome of this election I pledge today to get back to work immediately to continue to steer this country through the crisis of covid, to lead this country into recovery from covid. And then when the time is right to offer this country the choice of a better future.”
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Fransen, who formed the British Freedom Party, describes herself as an “extremist in every sense”. She believes Islam and the Koran should be banned while those opposed to the monarchy should be hanged for treason.
She has previously been pictured outside the constituency office of Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf holding a sign saying "it's okay to be white" and has said she is running against the "SNP commie, Marxists, naughty people".
She was convicted of a number of religiously aggravated crimes, including harassment in both 2016 and 2018 – the latter of which saw her sentenced to 36 weeks in prison.
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