This definitely isn’t a surprise January 31, 2023
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
The Green Party would be open to entering a coalition with Sinn Féin if the party started taking environmental issues “seriously”, party leader Eamon Ryan has said.
The Dublin Bay South TD said the Greens would work with “all parties” in the future when it came to tackling the climate and environmental crisis.
Asked if he would consider forming a future government with Sinn Féin the Green Party leader did not rule it out.
“I’ve always said that the scale of change needed on the environmental side and the urgency means that we can’t sit back and wait for the ideal partners and the ideal opportunity to go into government,” Mr Ryan told RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week.
It makes electoral sense for Ryan to state he’s open to such a coalition. With SF riding high in the polls he needs to attract transfers from across the political spectrum. Whether this works is a different matter.
That said, he’s not wrong in pointing to the gap in SF policies in relation to the environment.
The Green Party leader added that, in such a scenario, Sinn Féin would have to “change” on the environment.
“They have to start taking the environmental agenda seriously, and show the ambition and the scale of response, and the funding and the resources that need to go with that in their policy approach,” Mr Ryan said.
“So we would enter any such negotiations with absolutely honest respect to all parties, respecting their mandate, but also holding a line.”
Mr Ryan said politics could not “delay” when it came to tackling climate change. “You can’t put off the environment, you can’t put it down as some kind of nice tick-box greenwashing option, it has to be real.”
But given he’s in coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil (and perhaps, for all its woes, not a coalition as loathed as the last FF administration of the late 2000), he can afford to say come one come all should the chips fall a certain way in two years’ time.
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But would the Shinners want to be associated with someone as as hypocritical as Ryan is on the environment? CETA anyone? Apart from the farming community loathing Ryan and the GP’s, his assault on the poorest and weakest in society via regressive carbon tax policies is pure neo-liberalism at its worst. I think the GP’s would be quite toxic to the Shinners.
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Whilist I don’t disagree with the above, post election The Greens could be important in Government formation. As it stands FG, Labour and depending on their leadership, FF would prefer not to go into Government with Sinn Féin. Indeed I think Labour and Fine Gael have ruled it out.
There is a degree of momentum in having a Government without Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil for the first time ever. There was an air of mystery as to who would possibly go in with Sinn Féin to form a Government.
The Greens coming out to say they would go into Government with Sinn Féin is quite important as it will now be a question to People Before Profit, Solidarity, The Social Democrats and so on. A possible non FFFG Coalition (without a transfer pact or joint polices) should emerge to give voters a real opportunity for change.
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The SD’s would go into a coalition with SF I’d say, if it came to it. They strike me as a group that would adhere pretty hard to whatever programme for government commitments they got from such a discussion though. PBP/Solidarity though, I’d say the best you’d be getting is some degree of confidence and supply.
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Can’t see Solidarity even doing that much. PBP more likely.
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Yeah a bridge too far for Sol. But PBP yes. (Confidence and supply at best) Then there’s Inds. A few but would any of the FFG or SF gene pool go for it. Hmmmm
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‘Realpolitik’ and ‘for the good of the country’ could be wheeled out by either side of the Left/Right divide of TDs who would have the opportunity of making a breakthrough (tempting for anyone who’s been on the fringe and likely to remain so in perpetuity if they pass up this rare opportunity) or personal advancement.
For SF, they might (if you’ll pardon the pun) bite the bullet re Greens or some others on the basis that SF will have a defined programme, be the dominant bloc and be more adept at managing any coalition partners imagining they’ll put manners on the Shinners.
Who knows? To state the obvious, it all depends on numbers, names and attitudes when the seats are won.
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How come Eamon Ryan and co. believe Ff and fg are serious about the climate crisis?
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