{"id":427248,"date":"2024-12-03T10:43:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T10:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=427248"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Greens-far-right-among-big-losers-in-Irish-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Greens-far-right-among-big-losers-in-Irish-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens, far-right among big losers in Irish vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

With vote-counting resuming Monday in Ireland’s closely-fought general election, the Green Party and far-right candidates are among the biggest losers so far.<\/p>\n

The incumbent centre-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael look set to retain power, with 170 of 174 seats in the lower chamber of parliament decided since Friday’s vote.<\/p>\n

Fianna Fail, on 46 seats, was well ahead of the main opposition, the left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein on 37, with Fine Gael also on 37.<\/p>\n

But support for the Green Party — the third coalition partner of the outgoing government — collapsed.<\/p>\n

And far-right candidates failed to win a single seat.<\/p>\n

The Green Party secured just three percent of the vote, down from seven at the last election in 2020 when it joined the coalition.<\/p>\n

Its leader Roderic O’Gorman was the only one of 12 Green lawmakers to hold on to a seat, saving the party from a total wipe-out.<\/p>\n

Analysts said the Greens were often scapegoated while in power by the big two coalition partners.<\/p>\n

The party has “no regrets at all” about entering government in 2020, O’Gorman insisted to reporters Sunday.<\/p>\n

But he admitted he was “very nervous” about the future of some of the “distinctly Green” policies introduced during their time in government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While relatively successful in pushing through climate-friendly policies, the party became widely associated with higher fuel taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As cost-of-living became a key voter concern, its policies became seen as an electoral liability.<\/p>\n

“As a small party, the Greens were always in a precarious position,” said Eoin O’Malley, a political scientist at Dublin City University.<\/p>\n

“They were responsible for many of the more unpopular government policies, while for environmentalists it was blamed for the inevitable compromises that come with government,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It benefited from being flavour of the month in 2020, but that soft support left it when the party was blamed for increasing energy costs,” O’Malley told AFP.<\/p>\n

The losses mirror similar defeats for green parties across Europe.<\/p>\n

“We’ve done the things we believe in, there’s been a cost but that’s politics,” said O’Gorman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Those issues that focus on climate aren’t going away, and as a party, we’re not going away either,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Green Party was almost wiped out in 2011 after serving in government with Fianna Fail.<\/p>\n

“Small parties in Irish coalition governments have to sacrifice more of their core policies in the government programme,” said political analyst Gail McElroy from Trinity College, Dublin.<\/p>\n

“This inability to fulfil their campaign promises leads to electoral penalties at the following election.”<\/p>\n

– No far-right breakthrough –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

The election was also marked by the failure of far-right candidates to enter parliament for the first time.<\/p>\n

Ireland is one of the few European Union members without any large established far-right party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for the first time, immigration became a prominent issue during this election campaign.<\/p>\n

Some 20 percent of Ireland’s 5.4-million population is now foreign-born.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Asylum applications have surged to record levels since 2002.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around 110,000 Ukrainians have also arrived in Ireland since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, one of the highest per capita influxes in the EU.<\/p>\n

Rising anti-immigration sentiment has sparked protests in working-class and rural communities that have sometimes spilled over into violence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In June five candidates campaigning on mainly anti-immigration and ultra-conservative platforms were elected to local councils, the first ever far-right representatives in Irish institutions.<\/p>\n

But the ultra-nationalist vote was fragmented among a wide range of micro-parties and independent candidates at the general election.<\/p>\n

“There were so many anti-immigrant candidates that they split the vote,” O’Malley told AFP.<\/p>\n

No far-right candidate gained more than four percent of the vote in any constituency.<\/p>\n

“So many of the candidates were too extreme, it made it difficult for someone concerned about immigration to vote on that basis,” he said.<\/p>\n

The issue also dropped in importance for voters in the run-up to the election as the main parties pledged to tighten up migration policy.<\/p>\n

In an exit poll Friday,\u00a0housing and homelessness, cost-of-living and health were all deemed more important than immigration as influencing voter decisions.<\/p>\n

Only six percent said immigration was the biggest factor in how they voted.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Count still going on in Ireland’s general election<\/p>\n

-PAUL FAITH
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