Alex Salmond is less popular in Scotland than Boris Johnson, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens has claimed.
Lorna Slater denied her party would suffer as a result of the newly launched Alba Party and today insisted they were not competing for the same voters at May's Holyrood election.
She described Salmond as a "disgruntled ex-first minister" and said people likely to vote for the Greens were a "totally different demographic" than supporters of Alba.
The Scottish Greens have never won a constituency at a Holyrood election and have relied on the list system to return MSPs - the same method now being pursued by Salmond's new party.
Before the ex-SNP leader launched his movement last week the Greens had been confidently predicting they could return as many as 10 MSPs in May.
But they have now face a three-way scrap for list votes from pro-independence supporters with the SNP and the new Alba Party.
"This new party has been thrown together at the last minute by a man who is less popular in Scotland than Boris Johnson is," Slater told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
"The Scottish Greens have had MSPs in the Scottish Parliament since the beginning and we have an excellent track record."
Pressed on whether pro-independence voters would hand their list vote in May to Alba at the expense of the Greens, Slater added: "I don't agree that we are competing for the same voters.
"Scottish Green voters care about climate, they care about fairness, they care about human rights.
"They are a totally different demographic than people who are likely to vote for a party that has been thrown together by a disgruntled ex-first minister as part of his vendetta against our First Minister."
Slater also defended her party's decision to back Sturgeon when the Conservatives proposed a motion of no confidence at Holyrood last week, dismissing it as a "political stunt" and a "circus".
