Taoiseach Simon Harris expressed his views on Sinn Féin and their leader Mary Lou McDonald during an media briefing that followed his arrival at the RDS election count centre on Sunday. Harris underlined that any comments regarding Sinn Féin should come from the party itself, only to go on and discuss the party extensively.
The Fine Gael’s leader shared comments encompassing wide-ranging areas, including his fellow candidates, the electorate and the longevity of the Government. His primary focus, however, was on Sinn Féin’s dismal performance during the local elections over the weekend.
Harris was reacting to remarks made by McDonald earlier in the day, where she had vowed to elaborate more on Sinn Féin’s potential governance strategies, bringing “genuine clarity to the answers and strategies” Sinn Féin intends to implement, instead of just identifying problems.
The Taoiseach suggests this realisation came late for McDonald, after her six-year tenure as party leader, calling it “demeaning” and “offensive to the Irish citizens”. He criticised McDonald’s assumption that they had not comprehended the issues, rebuking that the Irish public had indeed understood Sinn Féin’s agenda, only to outrightly reject it.
Harris continued to emphasize that the Irish people do not perceive themselves as residing in a broken nation, and dealt a further blow by highlighting that Sinn Féin had faced an “absolute debacle” in both of McDonald’s local elections.
When probed about the overwhelming Independent vote, he reverted back to his previous point. “The real headline here is not the increased backing for Independents, but rather the epic fall in support for Sinn Féin,” he concluded.
It’s hardly a shock to find the Taoiseach taking pleasure in the troubles currently faced by the primary Opposition party. Though local seats might be lost by the Coalition and a fight to maintain existing numbers in the European Parliament remains, the early storyline of these elections and an exclusively one-way momentum have been established.
Earlier, McDonald confidently stated that she would not be daunted by a general election taking place imminently. However, the party must internally be questioning what their primary narrative would be if a poll was called. The support base that her party developed from its hard-hitting critique of Government housing policies seems to be slipping away as the mood of the electorates and the unfolding political dynamics are changing.
In the meantime, the possibility of an imminent election seems to be increasing. Given the transient nature of political opportunity, Harris must have realised that the electorate didn’t hesitate to give Leo Varadkar a setback just months after he hesitated with a Brexit deal in 2019.
There’s a broader sentiment among the Cabinet members, inclusive of those who support going full-term, that political dynamics are paving the way for a premature dissolution of the Dáil.
Finally, if the interpretation of the recent election results and subsequent polls indicate that the Government could potentially command an electorate majority at a time when momentum is draining from Sinn Féin, the question could arise: why delay?