People Before Profit (PBP) is seeking a formal voting pact with Sinn Féin modelled on the French New Popular Front but says Mary Lou McDonald’s party will have to stop “scapegoating” migrants to take part.
Dublin South-West TD Paul Murphy told reporters at Leinster House on Tuesday that he has written to the Sinn Féin president seeking talks with the party and others on the left to “come together to learn from what has happened in France” and “to establish a left front here to go into the next election”.
He said that the current polling trajectory and the outcome of the local and European elections suggests that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will be returned to Government, supported by Independents or the centre-left.
“We think that would be a missed opportunity in terms of where the polls have been at for most of the period since the last general election, and we think there’s lessons to learn from France,” he said.
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He called for a clear vote left/transfer left official pact between parties, a commonly agreed radical programme and a commitment from participants not to go into Coalition with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.
“People’s disappointments and cynicism about politics, a big part of that comes from the fact that in the past, they’re voting for change, for example, for the Greens or Labour Party, and their votes have ended up putting Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael back in power,” he said.
An additional red line would be a commitment not to “engage in a scapegoating of asylum seekers” and instead to “stand in solidarity with asylum seekers and to try and unite people regardless of what colour they are, regardless of what county they come from, against those who are actually responsible for the housing crisis and for the health crisis”.
Sinn Féin were seen by many commentators as having pivoted to the right on migration before the election – with Mr Murphy saying on Tuesday that he did believe the party had scapegoated migrants.
“I think Sinn Féin made a very, very big mistake, both morally and politically in the run up to the election,” he said, adding that the strategy had “backfired” and that there are “lots of people within Sinn Féin, who know that what they did in the run of the local and European elections was an absolute disaster because they ended up playing the election on the pitch and the Government wanted to play it on.”
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