Adam Price will not resign as Plaid Cymru leader despite 'disappointing' election result
Plaid Cymru's Adam Price has said he will not resign as leader despite a disappointing Senedd election which saw his party slip into third behind Labour and the Conservatives.
Plaid won 13 seats last week, one more than in the previous Senedd election in 2016.
They were, however, leap frogged by the Conservatives who had their best result since the first Senedd election in 1999.
Despite the set back, Price insisted that people did respond to his party's message of "hope and change."
Price said: "My job is to lead, its not to give up at a set back or disappointment. My job is to sustain the hope - all those young people who voted for Plaid because they were inspired by our message of the potential we believe is there in Wales to deliver a decent society for our people.
"I firmly believe that we have sown a lot of seed at this election. A lot of young people in particular who did come with us this time has laid the foundations for the future which I think will set us up for growth in the years to come."
He continued: "I'm not in politics for Plaid Cymru, I'm in politics because I want to change the lives of the people of Wales and unfortunately we're not going to be able to do that to the extent we would have liked.
"That's a disappointment but what do you do? You carry on because the vision we set out is still the right one. We shouldn't accept that this is as good as it gets.
"We need radical transformational change and my job, and our parties job, is to carry on with that message of hope and change that many people did respond to."
One of the major casualties for Plaid Cymru from the election was former leader Leanne Wood losing her seat in the Rhondda to Labour's Elizabeth Buffy Williams.
Plaid's share of the vote across much of the Valleys fell and they were even knocked into third in Islwyn - a constituency they once held.
"We can look at other areas where we saw a substantial increase in the vote. The truth is we held our vote," Price said.
We've got to look to see why we were successful in some areas and less successful in the others."
Price said the pandemic had an impact on the outcome of the election as people voted for "continuity."
He said: "When it was choice been continuity, keeping with the party that's been running Wales for many many years, or change then people opted for continuity.
"You can understand why they would have done that but it was a very difficult election then."