IN THE European Parliament elections Ireland bucked trends apparent elsewhere in the EU by voting against ruling parties but supporting several candidates from the centre and hard left who did less well in most other member states.
The overall EU trend favoured the centre-right whose European People’s Party will be the largest group in the parliament, with the centre-left Party of European Socialists coming in a poor second. Strong name recognition and established records helped Fianna Fáil MEPs such as Brian Crowley and Liam Aylward and TD Pat “the Cope” Gallagher to win seats despite their party’s great unpopularity – but not Eoin Ryan.
The same factor helped Gay Mitchell, Mairéad McGuinness and Jim Higgins secure reelection, as well as newcomer Seán Kelly in the South constituency. But they also enjoyed a buoyancy against the Government typical of trends towards the centre right elsewhere. Labour’s Proinsias De Rossa likewise benefited, but that party’s new candidate Nessa Childers received a strong surge of support in the East which gave her the seat. The Socialist Party’s Joe Higgins demonstrated many of the same attributes, along with a pronounced left-wing push seen elsewhere in the Dublin region which helped him defeat Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald. Ireland’s well-established tradition of diligent Independent MEPs saw Marian Harkin keep the seat.
The centre left notably failed to take advantage of the economic crisis because of voter dissatisfaction with incumbent governments in Spain and the United Kingdom, disagreements among their political group on whether to oppose outgoing commission president José Manuel Barroso, and solid defeats in France, Italy, Germany and Poland. Their failure to pose a coherent alternative vision of economic management contributed to lower voter turnout and dissatisfaction with the political choices on offer. The centre left’s lacklustre performance will ensure Mr Barroso another term and shape the next commission to be appointed in the autumn.
Ireland will vote again on the Lisbon Treaty before that. These results reflect the definite shift of public opinion towards the treaty. Libertas leader Declan Ganley failed in his bid for election in the North West for lack of transfer support. His efforts to promote a pan-European party fell spectacularly short of its objectives. Smaller far-right and Eurosceptic parties are more represented in the new parliament, but they had little traction in the Irish results.