Greens in seven heaven

Robin Harper will have six new colleagues at Holyrood

The Scottish Green Party is celebrating a place at the "top table" of Scottish politics after a surge in support at the polls.

As the dust settled after the Holyrood election the party was left with seven MSPs - six more than after the first elections to the parliament in 1999.

The Greens had been expected to pick up seats, but the scale of those gains took many pundits by surprise.

Robin Harper, who was the party's sole representative in the first Scottish Parliament, said the party's success was a vindication of a new style of politics.

The election also saw significant gains for the Scottish Socialist Party, which went from one seat to six, and four independents picked up seats at constituency and regional list level.

'Back-biting and sniping'

The Greens' greatest success came in the Lothians list, where Mr Harper was returned along with colleague Mark Ballard after the party secured almost 32,000 list votes.

Single seats were also secured on the lists for South of Scotland, Glasgow, Mid Scotland and Fife, North East Scotland and the Highlands and Islands.

The party said this showed that voters were being turned off by "back-biting and sniping" among politicians.

We will remain as activists inside parliament just as much as when we were on the outside

Robin Harper

Mr Harper described the result as "an enormous step forward" for Green politics.

"I wish to thank each and every Green voter for the confidence they have placed in us and in a better future for Scotland," he said.

"This enlarged group means that we will be able to forge ahead with the urgent task of greening Scotland.

"We have crossed the crucial threshold of five MSPs which gives us a place at the top table in parliament.

"We will look to build new and stronger alliances with campaigning and community groups so that Scotland's record as the dirty, wasteful capital of Europe will be put behind us."

Patrick Harvie was elected as a Green list MSP for Glasgow

He said the Greens would also share experiences with sister parties in Europe.

And he stressed: "We will remain as activists inside parliament just as much as when we were on the outside."

Mr Harper said the Greens would try and ensure that the next Scottish Executive would keep to its promises on the environment.

He said they would also attempt to use their new powers as constructively as possible.

The Greens were most likely to operate on an "issue by issue" basis, he said, although they might be prepared to strike a one-year agreement with the coalition - as long as there was a pledge to introduce proportional representation for council elections.

"We might go for that, but we will be discussing these things over the next four weeks," he added.