The European Elections …. January 11, 2019
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.trackback
It’s early days yet but the field for the European Elections are slowly taking shape. There are some retiring MEP’s and assuming Brexit happens two extra seats.
Dublin (4 seats)
An extra seat and sitting MEPs Nessa Childers and Brian Hayes not standing again. So far there are only a few confirmed candidates with a number of parties yet to confirm their candidates. Sitting MEP Lynn Boylan of Sinn Féin will surely retain her seat and then there is Ciaran Cuffe of The Green Party and Éilis Ryan of The Workers’ Party.
Fine Gael have yet to select a candidate with all sorts of names from Frances Fitzgerald to Lucinda Creighton being mentioned as possibilities. Alex White is contesting the Labour Convention (anyone else contesting it?). Anne Marie McNally and Gary Gannon are contesting Social Democrats Convention. Whilst Mary Hanafin, Barry Andrews, Tiernan Brady and Conor Lenihan are looking for the FF nomination. No word yet from People Before Profit -Solidarity on a candidate or candidates. No sign of any Independent or smaller party candidates yet either.
Looking at it now FG and SF should have candidates elected (I wonder would SF take a chance and run a second candidate?) ,Eamon Ryan came close the last time so I’d put Ciaran Cuffe in the mix along probably with a Fianna Fail candidate (I think Brady could do well if selected). I’m not sure Alex White will have a broad appeal and there isn’t really any high profile Solidarity-People Before Profit candidate as they are all TD’s now.
Likely to end up 1 SF, 1 FG, 1 FF, 1 GP
Ireland Midlands North West (4)
Still 4 seats and Matt Carthy of Sinn Féin won’t be standing, Mairead McGuinness of Fine Gael and Luke Ming Flanagan will be running again and I gather that Marian Harkin has yet to confirm if she will or not.
Sinn Féin may well run sitting MEP for Northern Ireland Martina Anderson here. Mairead McGuinness and Flanagan should also be returned.
Fianna Fail missed out on a seat here by just 275 votes the last time out. Surely they will be aiming to take a seat here. Depending on how far along the process is an SDLP figure from the North might be a good bet to stand under the FF banner. Other confirmed candidates at this stage are Dominic Hannigan of Labour and Michael O’Dowd of Renua. Interesting too if Peadar Tóibín’s crowd run here, a credible candidate may do well.
Likely to end up 1 SF, 1 FG, 1 FF, 1 Ind
Ireland South (5)
This gains an extra seat. Sitting MEPs Liadh Ní Riada of Sinn Féin, Seán Kelly and Deirdre Clune of Fine Gael will be running again. No word yet on Brian Crowley. Aside from health issues, Crowley also resigned the FF whip.
Jason Fitzgerald and Kieran Hartley are among those that are going for the FF nomination, Michael McNamara and Sheila Nunan are seeking the Labour Party Nomination, Grace O’Sullivan of The Green Party will be standing too. Again I’d expect Peadar Tóibín’s crowd to run here. If Crowley does run Should be 2FG, 1 SF , 1 FF and Crowley . Otherwise a mad dash for a final seat that is almost impossible to call.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
With all due respect to Brian Crowley and his health problems, it would be bonkers for him to put his name forward again. And doubly bonkers if he were re-elected. He has missed all 8213 votes taken in the European Parliament in the last five years.
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The fact that he hasn’t resigned his seat would lead me to think that there is a chance he might run again.
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A spoiling move perhaps?
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Ciaran is standing against me in Dublin!
Sent from my Windows 10 device
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Great, you running on a Fís Nua ticket again?
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the coverage given to Conor & Mary show the Lenihan and Hanafin families rather than FF seem to have retained the media links. Imagine them (or even Barry Andrews) being the standard bearers – what an image for Michael Martin of the new, shiny, left wing, pro nurses never did a dodgy thing Fianna Fail. Ministers from the worst government in living memory returned from the dead.
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“Fool me once, I’m mad. Fool me twice, how could you. Fool me three times, you’re officially ‘that guy’.”
I will take *bets* that Crowley doesn’t get re-elected, the public just cannot be that gullible. Can it? I expect a significant portion will jump over to a FF definite candidate anyway. So 2 FG, 1 FF and 1SF in South with the fifth seat a bit more wildcard. Green or Labour maybe after a dogfight of transfers?
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“Brexit paralysis has prompted talk of a British election or a second referendum but one odd side-effect could be Britons having to cast their votes for an EU parliament they had decided to leave….
A European affairs minister from an EU government said the prospect of Britons having to hold a vote in late May to elect MEPs to a chamber they were still about to leave would be “mad politically, but legally we might have no other option”.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-election/brits-to-vote-again-brexit-delay-creates-headache-for-europe-idUSKCN1P51TI
“Two of the 13 Irish MEPs elected in next year’s European Parliament elections will not be allowed take up their seats if there is any delay in Britain leaving the European Union”
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/brexit-may-delay-irish-meps-from-taking-their-seats-1.3725380
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Apart from raising their profile for the general election or blocking other candidates from taking European seats what is it that the SDs and GP candidates want to do in Europe? How would they be useful there? How much will they spend and where will they get the money ? See how much was spent last time. https://www.sipo.ie/en/Reports/Election-Reports/European-Parliament-Election-23-May-2014/Chapter-3-Donations-election-expenses-disclosed.html His current general election crowdfunding campaign has achieved 750 quid out of target of 5k in 2 months https://www.gofundme.com/gary-gannon-dublin-central Ok so a prospect of a general election is up in the air but… Did somebody say somewhere that AAA proposed to run Michael O’Brien for Europe? I was also wondering why John Lyons referenced the European elections in his resignation statement https://www.facebook.com/john.lyons.96199/posts/10156195801122956 perhaps he was just stating they are occurring the same time as the locals.
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“Apart from raising their profile for the general election or blocking other candidates from taking European seats what is it that the SDs and GP candidates want to do in Europe?”
Well at least the both those parties believe that something can be achieved in the European Parliament. The Greens have their own European formation.
What do the Irish franchises of the British Socialist Party or Socialist Workers Party want to do in the EU? Apart from hasten its demise?
Why are they standing in a political context that they dismiss? Why vote for a party representative in a parliament which that party wants to abolish?
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Just to be clear I wasn’t comparing the SDs and GPs with PBP and Solidarity I was asking what is it that they themselves think they can achieve in Europe as opposed to be the Dail if it we take the premise that they’d win and stay there.
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I think to be fair the Greens in the EU Parliament have achieved at least oversight and some changes in legislation in environmental programmes, food safety and data protection.
The sign of political effectiveness in environmental and social progress is that companies see it necessary to lobby heavily against you. That has certainly happened.
It’s interesting how Lexiteers continually talk down the political significance of the European Parliament and that business sees fit to lobby continuously. Also people like and Bannon and the Koch Brothers see the EU as a significant obstacle to the establishment of their vision of authoritarian international capitalism opposed only by weakened national states.
An interesting mismatch in the perception of power.
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Which Leixiteers are you referring to? The Irish Greens hanv’t been in Europe since 2004. They may be only one year between European and Dail elections rather then maybe 2.5 on other occasions, choices have to be made. (or not really because they don’t expect to win) Other then hoping the politician you vote for will pursue your shared priorities and principles European elections here don’t actually discuss European wide issues. I would loved to have seen see candidates debate the degree of PNR on PrimeTime in 2014 I can’t remember it happening.
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Which Lexiteers are you referring to?
Well, there are certainly Irish Lexiteers (from both the Republican and non-Republican left).)
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DS – a Green MP would have a European Green party with which to work – that was what I was trying to get at.
And I absolutely agree that the problem is that candidates at European elections in Ireland always start from the cute-hoor position (i.e. what’s in it for us – RoI?). So don’t vote for anyone in the EP elections who can’t think and act on a wider scale.
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Isn’t the reactionary casey in the mix. Shinawil Tv productions are negotiating to follow his campaign.https://www.thesun.ie/news/3602794/peter-casey-reality-tv-show-mep-campaign/
I think PbP/Solidarity should stand someone. They can use the alternative to put someone else in if say Murphy or RBB run and win.
Oh what about Ailbhe Smyth. Big profile.
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Sure PBP/Solidarity should run candidates. If they’re motherships are able to acknowledge the significance of the EU parliament as a site for political action.
Otherwise its just profile-raising and siphoning off EU funding. A national sport, I know, but perhaps political representatives should not all descend to the level of Nigel Farage & Co.
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their – some grammatical mistakes seem to be hardwired at speed 😦
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I would imagine solidarity will be in the mix to regain the seat they lost last time around.Probably, I would vote for its candidate myself.
However,, to expand the point I made recently the left should be considering these elections as an opportunity to get closer within itself. I would doubt whether its present divisions are objectively necessary. Solidarity and PBP have more in common than they have with others (the state cap v. workers’ state dispute should have been put in the grave with the SU). The same is true regards the CPI and the WP.
One of the most pressing causes of division is Brexit and here the split is more obvious than real. I don’t think many of us left remainers are too enamoured with the EU; we would accept much of the Lexit criticism of its lack of democracy, internally and externally, particularly as regards the ECB. We recognise that it is not federation of workers’ states, let alone socialist. We would not want it to become a full state thru establishing Pesco and while we are glad of many of its regulations that the Brexiteers wish to scrap, we remember that it was Bismarck who initiated the welfare state. Our disagreement with the Lexiteers lies in the fact that we consider that it has to be proved that breaking the connexion with Europe is the way forward for the Irish working people rather than just placing ourselves (as we would place ourselves if it happened tomorrow) as clients of an even more regressive Anglo-American imperial bloc.
I would suggest, then that all allegedly ‘left’ candidates for Europe be challenged to commit themselves to a minimum four points: 1/ Parliamentary initiation of legislation; 2/ Parliamentary sovereignty over the ECB; 3/ No Pesco; 4? No anti-immigrant moves. No doubt other points may be suggested, but these seem basic.
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Brian Crowley MEP to discuss his political future and his recent ill health on Thursday at press conference in Cork
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Couldn’t find ‘what do you want to say’ but today is the 100th anniversary of when the Freikorps und Nolke murdered Rosa Luxemburg, at the behest of the SPD.
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The AfD are running a European election campaign on the basis of abolition of the European parliament to which they will be elected and a later exit of Germany from the EU.
Self-contradition was never a problem for the AfD who do politics on a purely emotional level, but it is a major political own-goal if they want expand their support outside their basic lumpen older male xenophobic constituency. Over 80% of Germans support staying in the EU.
Lexiteers can decide whether they want to march shoulder-to-shoulder with the AfD or not.
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I think you’ll find that is the platform SF ran on in 1919, just because their extreme right doesn’t make them idiots and that their anti-EU and it’s dogshit parliament is a fairly reasonable political position.
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Saw today that PBP intend running Gillian Brien in Dublin. … Presumably with her winning a Council seat in mind.
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A bit mad of an idea, surely? Putting someone up for Europe to increase their chances of winning a Council seat? Though I suppose if you had a candidate who you thought might eventually make it to the Dáil, putting them up for Europe to raise profile and increase name recognition might make sense. And again I suppose the party would argue that the Euro election is a chance to engage with the electorate about their policies and ideology and all that.
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Isn’t she just running in Dublin Central? Is there a link to her running in the Europeans?
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People Before Profit are a disease rather than political organisation
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Not my politics – but then I’m not a Leninist – still, I’ve met some pretty sound and hard working people in them so that kind of rhetoric seems pretty hollow to me. If you’ve an actual critique as against random abuse that’s fair enough but otherwise this isn’t the site for you.
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It was mentioned on the East Wall People Before Profit Facebook page.
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Mentioned on the East Wall PbP page? Mightn’t be accurate info so?
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Thats her branch I think.
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What a lack of ambition by our revolutionaries. Why not Ailbhe Smyth or one of the other fantastic women who fronted the Abortion referendum. Or someone with a similar profile. The far left might get a Council seat.
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I’ve long argued that a big problem for the smaller left parties is the way in which layers have been soaked up in Leinster House leaving candidates and reps outside fewer and perhaps less electable in some instances – but as you say AS for a start would be a doughty campaigner – I wonder who will run for pbp in Dub in euros
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I see Clare Daly has endorsed WP candidate Cllr Éilis Ryan for The European elections in Dublin in May
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Dodgy. Very dodgy. Any more endorsements like that and Ryan will be in severe danger of losing my No.1.
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Confirmed today. Gillian Brien running for PBP in Dublin. Based in Dublin Central but has no profile at all outside of there (if even there). Did her proximity to Éilis Ryan help?
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