Alex Salmond's term as first minister of Scotland began on 17 May 2007 when he was formally sworn into office at the Court of Session. It followed his Scottish National Party's win at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, where his party defeated the incumbent Labour Party by just one seat. Salmond's term ended on 18 November 2014, following his resignation in the aftermath of the Yes campaign's defeat in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

Salmond led the Scottish National Party (SNP) through the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, where his party won 47 seats, one more than the incumbent Scottish Labour. Initially approaching the Scottish Liberal Democrats for a coalition, they declined, and instead, Salmond formed a minority government with the confidence and supply deal of the Scottish Greens. Entering office, the Salmond government conducted a series of reforms of the Scottish Executive, including rebranding the Executive to the Scottish Government. A month into his term, he was faced with the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack, Scotland's worst terrorist attack since the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. The first nationalist First Minister, Salmond's government made attempts to push legislation for a referendum on Independence, however, the SNP failed to obtain support from other parties and withdrew the draft bill. His government passed legislation on free prescription charges and free university tuition fees. Salmond was committed to tackling the climate crisis through the Partnership Agreement with the Maldives, one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels.

The 2011 Scottish Parliament election resulted in Salmond winning an unprecedented landslide victory. The SNP won the first ever single-party majority, with 69 out of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament. Salmond used his majority to push for a referendum on the second half of the parliament term. As constitutional matters remain reserved to the British Government, Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to grant the powers to hold a referendum known as the Edinburgh Agreement. Salmond's government oversaw the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which received widespread acclaim. The Scottish independence referendum was held on 18 September 2014, with a majority of the Scottish people voting against independence. As a result, Salmond resigned as First Minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP. He was succeeded by Nicola Sturgeon, his deputy first minister.

Transition to first minister

Salmond led the Scottish National Party through the 2007 Scottish election to the 3rd Scottish Parliament. His party came out as the largest party with 47 seats, one seat ahead of the incumbent Scottish Labour. The SNP initially approached the Scottish Liberal Democrats to form a coalition, but they declined to take part in negotiations. This left the SNP without any possibility to form a coalition with an overall majority. Ultimately, the Scottish Greens agreed to vote in an SNP minority government in return for concessions on climate policy and naming a Green to chair a committee.

With the support of the Greens, Salmond was elected by the Scottish Parliament as First Minister on 16 May 2007, and was sworn in the following day after receiving the Royal Warrant from the Queen and taking the official oath of allegiance before judges at the Court of Session. Salmond became the first nationalist politician to hold the office of First Minister and it was the first time an incumbent First Minister was defeated from office.

Under section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 he became Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland at the same time.Scotland Act 1998, section 45(7) He was appointed to the Privy Council four weeks later, giving him the title of 'The Right Honourable'.

First term 2007–2011

Cabinet appointments and changes

On the same day of Salmond's appointment, he began making appointments to the Scottish Cabinet. He reduced the size of the cabinet from nine members to six and restyled the title of cabinet members from 'Minister' to 'Cabinet Secretary'. He sought govern on a "policy by policy" basis and removed the Lord Advocate from cabinet, in order for the position to be non-partisan.

Salmond appointed SNP Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon as Deputy First Minister of Scotland, as well as, the role of Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing. John Swinney was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, Fiona Hyslop Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Kenny MacAskill Cabinet Secretary for Justice, and Richard Lochhead Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment.

On 2 September 2007, the Scottish Executive rebranded to the Scottish Government. Salmond said the change was made so that the executive acted like a government. However, it received major criticism by other parties over the cost, which was estimated to have been around £100,000 for the rebrand.

2007 Glasgow Airport attacks

Salmond had been First Minister of Scotland for just over a month when the first terrorism attack in Scotland since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie in December 1988, when a vehicle rammed the front entrance of the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport on 30 June 2007. In a statement addressing the attacks in Glasgow, Salmond stated "terrorist acts are the work of individuals not communities and the arrival of terror on our soil must not result in racist attacks on ethnic minorities whose only crime is to share the same religion and colour as the bombers. It is to be hoped that yesterday's attack is an isolated incident, but the reality is that we will have to deal with more in the future. We must not allow terrorists to stop us from going about our lives as we always have – to do so would be to hand a victory to the men of terror."

Salmond issued a statement regarding the attacks in Edinburgh, calling for "the need for vigilance and unity against the forces of terror and rightly praised the work of the emergency services". Salmond called a meeting of the Scottish Government security advisers in St Andrew's House in Edinburgh, followed by a request from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Salmond, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill and the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini to attend an emergency COBRA meeting. By the evening of 30 June, Salmond had attended an online conference discussion with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown and his governmental cabinet.

Release of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi

Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (a Libyan who was head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies in Tripoli, Libya, and an alleged Libyan intelligence officer) was convicted on 31 January 2001 by a special Scottish Court in the Netherlands for the bomb attack on Pan Am Flight 103 on 21 December 1988 over Lockerbie. After he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, he was released from prison on compassionate grounds on 20 August 2009, having served 8½ years of a life sentence. His release was authorised by Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. The decision attracted significant news coverage, engendering widespread celebration in Libya, a largely hostile reaction in the United States and a more equally divided reaction in Britain.

His prolonged survival, exceeding the approximate three months suggested in August 2009, generated much controversy. In Libya, he was released from hospital and later lived at his family's villa. His death was announced on 20 May 2012.

Salmond and his Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny MacAskill, were criticised for the decision, particularly from the United States government. The Scottish Governments decision was called "absolutely wrong" by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and "an outrage" and a "caving in" by Senator Frank Lautenberg. President Barack Obama denounced the decision and Attorney General Eric Holder said that there was "no justification for releasing this convicted terrorist whose actions took the lives of 270 individuals." Senator John Kerry, the former Democratic presidential candidate, said that the decision "turn[s] the word ’compassion’ on its head." FBI director Robert Mueller, who had been a lead investigator in the 1988 bombing, was "outraged at [the] decision, blithely defended on the grounds of 'compassion'" and called it "as inexplicable as it is detrimental to the cause of justice" in an open letter to MacAskill.

Scottish independence proposal

Salmond launched A National Conversation on 14 August 2007 which consisted of a 59-page white paper, titled Choosing Scotland's Future, and a website. The white paper included a draft bill for a referendum to allow for negotiations with the UK Government on Scottish independence. The website encourages comments to be made on the white paper.

A white paper for an independence referendum, setting out four possible options ranging from no change to full independence, was published by the Scottish Government on 30 November 2009. A draft bill for public consultation was published on 25 February 2010, setting out a two-question yes/no referendum, proposing further devolution or full independence. Opposition parties issued statements claiming that they would not support the draft bill for public consultation on the issue of independence.

Following the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, in which the SNP won a majority of seats and forming the first majority Scottish Government in the parliaments existence, Salmond claimed that the majority obtained by the SNP was "a victory for a society and a nation", and later confirmed that an independence referendum would be held in the second half of the parliamentary term.

Swine flu pandemic

Salmond was the first minister during the outbreak of the swine flu pandemic in 2009. At the outbreak of the pandemic worldwide, Salmond confirmed that the Scottish Government was "closely monitoring the situation", with his Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, saying there was "no immediate threat to public health in Scotland". Scotland was the country in the United Kingdom which had the first reported case of swine flu following a flight from Mexico on 27 April 2009. By 30 April 2009, Salmond confirmed there was another suspected case of swine flu in Scotland after a positive test of an individual in Glasgow. On 1 May 2009, Salmond activated the Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) in response to the outbreak of swine flu in the country, with the meeting attended by senior governmental official, police and medics who would be in charge of any emergency control measures.

During First Minister's Questions at the start of June 2009, Salmond confirmed that the number of swine flu cases in Scotland had risen to a total of 88 confirmed cases, with four confirmed to be in intensive care. Salmond suggested that the surge in cases "indicates that there can be no complacency on the part of anyone because while in most cases we are seeing a relatively mild impact of flu there are always people who, for a variety of reasons, prove more susceptible to the virus".

As a long–term sufferer of asthma, he was regarded to be in one of the "at risk" categories of catching swine flu. Salmond received the swine flu vaccination in December 2009, and used this as an opportunity to stress the importance of being vaccinated against the disease to the wider public.

2009 global recession

In October 2008, during the 2008 financial crisis, Salmond claimed that the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was to blame for the economic situation, claiming that the problem was "one created at 10 Downing Street". In April 2009, Salmond pledged £95 million in investment from the Scottish Government to aid economic recovery efforts.