Independent candidates for the European Parliament elections in June are topping the polls in Ireland amid a backlash against EU “careerists”.
Support for non-aligned candidates has spiked amid anger attributed to the refusal of mainstream groups to address immigration.
In a poll published on May 10, 24 per cent of respondents said they would be voting for an independent candidate or a candidate of a minor party in the upcoming EP elections.
That is compared with 22 per cent of respondents who said they would be voting for candidates belonging to opposition party Sinn Féin.
Speaking to Brussels Signal, Irish independent MEP candidate and anti-mass migration protest movement leader Malachy Steenson attributed the shift to the decision by mainstream parties to uniformly back large-scale migration.
“Irish political parties were in lockstep with EU policy for decades. They’re careerists,” he said.
He argued that many of these policies, including “migration chaos, democratic backsliding on freedom of speech, and unhinged woke and green extremism”, had “disgusted” Irish voters.
“Those Irish people are now turning to independents to shield them from self-serving Irish and EU politics. It’s that simple,” the Dublin-based candidate argued.
“We want to build a Europe of its people, run for the benefit of its people and not for an elitist political and NGO class.”
The tightening of asylum policies in the UK is causing ripple effects in Ireland as the threat of being deported to Rwanda spurs migrants to seek refuge in the Emerald Isle. https://t.co/8v37LpxeE4
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) April 26, 2024
May 10’s poll could also bode well for Independent Ireland, a newly formed party that is currently within the “independents & others” bracket.
While officially unaffiliated, the party has worked closely in the past with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, which currently does not have any members in Ireland.
This seems likely to change in June, with the European Council of Foreign Relations predicting in January that the coming vote will see Ireland return at least one ECR MEP.
Other parties are expected to be the biggest losers, with the European People’s Party, Greens and Renew now all set to lose out as a result of Ireland’s perceived mishandling of migration and other issues.
Questions remain over the fate of the country’s two most prominent MEPs – Mick Wallace and Clare Daly.
While the politicians have evoked dislike within the European Parliament over their stance on the war in Ukraine, both continue to enjoy strong support at home.
Ireland should join the UK in sending illegal migrants to Rwanda, the British Government has suggested following a recent row between the two nations over migration. https://t.co/8owHnwUIlv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) May 3, 2024
