Alex Salmond's body ready to be brought home from North Macedonia, say officials
Alex Salmond's body ready to be brought home from North Macedonia, say officials
Getty Images Alex Salmond's supporters have called for the UK government to allow the RAF to fly his body directly to Scotland
Alex Salmond's body is ready to be brought home to Scotland, officials in North Macedonia have said. The Alba Party founder and ex-SNP leader and first minister died of a heart attack while attending a conference on Saturday. The North Macedonian ministry of foreign affairs said the "technical work" of repatriation had been completed, and that they were "waiting for information regarding the departure time from the Scottish side". Supporters of Salmond have been lobbying the UK government to allow the RAF to fly his body to Scotland.
The UK foreign office has said it is providing consular support to Salmond?s family and is in contact with local authorities and the Scottish government. The Scottish government has been asked to comment.
'Get him home'
The former first minister was in Ohrid, North Macedonia, to attend an Academy for Cultural Diplomacy (ACD) conference. Chris McEleny, general secretary of the Alba Party, flew to the city following Salmond's death. He called on the UK government to grant approval for his body to be flown directly back to Scotland. Conservative MP David Davis, a close friend of Salmond's, has also lobbied the UK government to do so. McEleny said using a commercial flight could take a ?significant amount of time? and would be a ?quite stressful and upsetting process?. He told BBC Scotland's Drivetime programme: "For his family?s sake, friends, we should get him home as quickly as possible. And for all that he?s done for Scotland, I think it?s the least that we can do for him."
Getty Images Alex Salmond joined tens of thousands of Scotland supporters in Germany this summer
