For a victory speech, it was decidedly not victorious. Nicola Sturgeon emerged from Bute House, her official residence in one of the grandest squares in Edinburgh, and stepped up to the lectern on the pavement. The crowds which tend to mob her every appearance were absent. Even her SNP colleagues were few in number.
The polls had predicted that she would be giving this speech having secured another majority for the SNP. Instead, she fell two seats short — calling into question the strength of the mandate she had received from the Scottish people.
Ms Sturgeon claimed in her speech that the result was “emphatic”, adding: “We won a clear and unequivocal mandate. And I secured the personal mandate I sought to implement the bold and ambitious programme for government that I asked the country to vote on.”
She confirmed that she would lead a minority government and would not do a formal deal with any other party. It means she will rely on opposition parties to help her get her policies through on a case-by-case basis rather than any kind of agreement, even an informal one. Aides insisted there were no backroom deals being done.
The first minister said her government would be “inclusive”, would “reach out” and would “govern with conviction and determination, but also with humility and a willingness to listen and learn from the ideas of others”.
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“It will deliver on the commitments we made to the Scottish people — but it will also reach out and seek to work with others across the parliament to find common ground and build consensus,” she said. “Election campaigns inevitably focus on differences and dividing lines — but I believe that if we choose to find it, there is common ground aplenty to build on.”
She singled out education — the policy area on which she has already said she wants to be judged — as a place where the parties could find common cause, and she sought to brush aside the issue on which she cannot expect to secure agreement: independence.
Opposition parties had already been questioning whether the vaguely worded pledge in her manifesto could give her a mandate for a second referendum.
Ms Sturgeon said: “On the question of independence, the SNP will make our case with passion, with patience and with respect. But our aim is to persuade, not to divide. We will always respect the opinion of the people, now and in the future, and we simply ask that other parties do likewise.”
Alex Salmond’s minority government of 2007 — a much weaker minority than Ms Sturgeon’s — was propped up by the Conservatives led by Annabel Goldie. Today’s first minister has built her political career on fighting the Tories and, even yesterday, she had a swipe at Ruth Davidson’s party. She said all Holyrood parties with “perhaps one exception” wanted to invest in public services and “build a social security system based on the principles of dignity and respect”.
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Indeed, despite the muted tone of the event, many of Ms Sturgeon’s words were bullish. She stressed that the SNP had made history as the first party to win a third consecutive Scottish parliament election and to take the highest share of the constituency vote and the largest number of constituency seats ever achieved. She also said the SNP was the first party in the era of devolution to poll more than one million votes in constituencies across the country.
As soon as she had finished talking the lecturn was swept away, excusing her from having to answer questions from the press who had been corralled into a pen on the other side of the road.
This has been a presidential campaign, sought almost exclusively on the popularity of one woman, and when that woman failed to live up to the virtually impossible expectations, she looked decidedly alone.
Last time, in 2011, had been so different. Alex Salmond, landing by helicopter in the grounds of a luxury Edinburgh hotel, Ms Sturgeon hurrying under the wind of the rotor blades to offer a kiss of congratulation.
This time Ms Sturgeon spoke for just six minutes, waved for maybe two more, then turned back inside the Georgian townhouse. It was a markedly subdued end to the campaign.