Micheál Martin can stop Sinn Féin’s seemingly inevitable ascension to power or he can facilitate it
Irish political parties today are more likely to be utilitarian vehicles for their supporters’ needs, than larger canvasses for fundamental change. Words like change, justice, equality and progress are reused interchangeably by competing political interests.
Varadkar was first out of the traps last week, proposing a voter pact with Fianna Fáil. Over six years of cohabitation since 2016, the net result of their arrangements has been a mutual shrivelling. By the end of that year the value of change or the prospect of it moved from Fianna Fáil to them. That was the basis of their harvest in the subsequent general election which the course of the campaign enhanced. Irish politics as restructured, primarily by Martin, in the form of the present Coalition has assisted them since.
The turn in the road will be in the spring of 2024 when he must make strategic decisions. Does he leave Government to go to Brussels as European Commissioner, retire, or lead Fianna Fáil into the next election? It is unlikely he has decided and any retirement is likely to be involuntary. But there is a path back to the taoiseach’s office.
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