Irish election: Government parties say voters have 'turned against' Sinn Fein - and there's 'no possibility' of republicans in government

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald  took over from Gerry Adams in 2018 - but has yet to secure republicans a place in government in Dublin. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA WireSinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald  took over from Gerry Adams in 2018 - but has yet to secure republicans a place in government in Dublin. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald took over from Gerry Adams in 2018 - but has yet to secure republicans a place in government in Dublin. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
​Despite having the lowest first preference vote of Ireland’s three main parties in Friday’s general election, Sinn Fein have claimed a mandate to form the next government – but opponents argue there is “no possibility whatsoever” of such an outcome.

​Fianna Fail are now on course to be the largest party in the Dail (Irish parliament) and, alongside previous coalition partners Fine Gael, the next Irish government looks set to be of a similar makeup to the last.

Sinn Fein says it has a mandate for “change” – despite the fact that the various small parties on the left of Irish politics don’t have the numbers to form a government.

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Mary Lou McDonald has repeatedly refused to rule out a coalition with Michael Martin’s party – but the Fianna Fail leader made it clear before the election that he would not govern with Sinn Fein because of policy differences.

Derek Mooney, a former government advisor for Fianna Fáil, told the BBC that a Sinn Fein-led government is not an option. “There's no possibility whatsoever because the simple basic fact – and no amount of spinning is going to change it – and no amount of talking and no amount of saying ‘this is change’… is going to change how those ballot papers are marked”, he said. “It looks like three out of every ten people who voted Sinn Féin in 2020 have not voted Sinn Féin this time. They've actually turned against Sinn Féin, they have gone to other parties and Sinn Féin cannot talk that away”, Mr Mooney added. He also said the electoral trend for the republican party is going downwards. “What I think I'd be more worried about if I was Sinn Féin is turn out is down, this isn't just localised, this isn't just in one area, this is right across the board”.

Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe told the BBC that Sinn Fein is now “one of the weakest opposition parties in Europe”.

The minister for public expenditure said the party wasn't able to answer “the most basic questions” during the election campaign.

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“Sinn Fein were the largest opposition party by some way in the outgoing Dail and they were unable at any point in this election to be able to outline what a credible alternative government would look like and answer the most basic questions that were put to them by other political parties by the media”, he said.

The Dublin TD added: “I think Sinn Fein are on track to be one of the weakest opposition parties in Europe. They were not able to answer any of the questions that were put to them, not able to outline what an alternative government could look like, and not able to outline how they would deliver the vision of change”. He said Fine Gael were part of a government that's had to deal with a cost of living crisis and “many, many challenges” over recent years.

But the Sinn Fein president said other parties that are “equally committed to change” had also had strong results and said her “first move will be to make contact with those”.

Ms McDonald, who replaced Gerry Adams as leader in 2018, said “I think we need to collectively now reflect and consider how we collectively best leverage the politics of change. I don't think it's good news to have another five years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. I don't think that's the outcome from this election that most people would favour”.

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She said that her “first and primary concern is to ensure that we that we have the politics of change and that we have the changed government. So the logical first step is to talk to people who share common cause with us in that regard. So we're going to have to go off and reflect on all of those things”.

She said a return of the outgoing government would be “bad news for Irish society”.

“What I am saying to you is that I will firstly talk to those parties with whom we share the politics of change look and if that doesn't work, no, no party has an easy, slam dunk route into government, including, by the way, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. At the beginning of the campaign, they may have thought that – at the end of the campaign, that's not the case”, the Dublin Central TD said.

The first preference votes in the election put Fianna Fail on top, with 21.9% ( down 0.3% on the 2020 general election result). Fine Gael received 20.8% (down 0.1%) and Sinn Fein finished on 19.0% (down 5.5% on its 2020 total).

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