THE SNP and the Greens are due to begin talks in the coming days about the prospect of forming a joint administration to run Scotland's largest local authority.
Susan Aitken, Glasgow city council's SNP group leader, and senior SNP councillor Ricky Bell, will be in charge of negotiations for their party.
Thursday's poll saw the SNP re-elected as the largest party in Glasgow, winning 37 seats (down two on 2017), with Labour taking 36 (up five), the Greens ten (up three) and the Tories two (down six).
Councillor Bell said a number of arrangements could be discussed, including a full coalition, a Holyrood style co-operation style agreement where some policy issues are excluded as areas of difference between the parties, or a confidence and supply deal where the Greens could agree to support the SNP on the budget and on confidence motions.
"We are hoping to start talks very soon with the Greens," Councillor Bell told The Herald.
Councillor Jon Molyneux, of the Scottish Greens, centre, talks to SNP Councillor Ricky Bell, right and SNP Councillor Chris Cunningham, at the Glasgow count on Friday. Photo Colin Mearns
"We need to look at the respective manifestos and see where they combine, where they don't, and some of that work is ongoing at the moment.
"We have to reach out to the Greens and find out what their newly elected councillors want to do."
He added: "During the previous five years, although we never had any formal agreement or co-operation deal with the Greens, they are the party we worked closely with.
"Four of our five budgets in the last term were passed as joint budgets between us and the Greens, so we have a very good relationship with the Greens and worked very constructively with them.
"So I am fairly confident we will find a sensible and mature way to do this so we will get an agreement that both parties are happy to sign up to."
Councillor Jon Molyneux, the co-leader of the Glasgow city council Scottish Greens, who won the most first preference votes in the city's Pollokshields ward, said he was open to "any conversations" to see how the party could deliver its manifesto.
He said his party would be speaking to the SNP in the first instance as the largest group in the council but was open to speaking to Labour too.
"We believe the party that elected the largest number of councillors has the right to have first go and form an administration," he said.
"So we will proceed on that basis with our SNP colleagues first. If we are unable to make process in those conversations we are not ruling out talking to other parties.
"We respect the result of the election. But the result of the election is that people do want change and I think it means there does need to be a change in approach.
"The SNP votes share was down and their seats are down and obviously our vote share and seats are up."
He continued: "We have an increased mandate from voters in Glasgow to try and make progress on our agenda and we want to deliver as much of our manifesto as we can.
"We have collaborated in the past with all parties in the last council. It's the way Greens work to try and be open and find common ground.
"We are open to working collaboratively and the issue is whether there will be a formalisation of that."
He added that his immediate priority was speaking to his group which included seven newly-elected councillors.
Scottish Labour have ruled out any formal coalitions with any other party with leader Anas Sarwar underlining that position at the weekend.
Asked whether there would be any point in speaking the party given that stance, Councillor Molyneux said: "Anas Sarwar's comments are not suggestive that they're the most open to dialogue but we are not closing things down."
Glasgow city council Labour group leader Councillor Malcolm Cunning said: "I sent a message of congratulations to my constituent Councillor Jon Molyneux saying well done...I am more than happy to have a chat with him."
Any formal deal the Greens strike with another party to run the administration in Glasgow would have to be approved by party members nationally.
Members backed the co-operation agreement the party made with the SNP last August which saw co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater appointed junior ministers in Nicola Sturgeon's government.
The agreement stopped short of a formal coalition as it allowed the parties to agree to disagree on certain policy areas, for instance whether an independent Scotland should be a Nato member. The SNP support membership while the Greens do not.
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