The last elections in the Republic of Ireland have brought some clarity to understand the claims and concerns of its population. With an unexpected turn to the left, the society of the country has given 24.5% of their votes to Sinn Féin, making it the party with a biggest social support of these elections. However, this party presented only 42 candidates for the 160 seats of the Parliament, so all of these votes will not become real political positions. The result is, finally, that Sinn Féin has become the second force inside the chamber getting only 37 of its seats.
Nevertheless, its growth shows the tendency of the country, that has turn its back away of the two parties that have been shifting power for a century and use to present themselves as one of the most stables examples of two-party system in Europe. We are talking of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, two conservative parties with a loyal preference for the austerity politics recommended by the European Union to fight against the economical crisis.
The current President, Leo Varadkar, tried to use the growth of the economy that these measures brought to achieve the re-election. However, the voters have punished these austerity politics reducing their support to this party and to Fianna Fáil, that backed the Government in decisions of great importance during its mandate.
Sinn Fein knew how to congregate this discontent with an electoral campaign based in the rejection of the economical and social politics of the austerity. The increase of the cost of living, the reduction of the public services, the growth of inequality, the colossal price of rent, the lack of available homes, the infinite queues in the health system or the cost of insurance are some of the problems that the Dubliner Mary Lou McDonald, the candidate of Sinn Féin, has pointed. The messages of this party has been focused to the return of the left wing social and economic policy as the solution of these issues. Unexpectedly, the party has not talked, almost never in the campaign, about the future relation of the country with the United Kingdom, Brexit or Boris Johnson, and has mentioned, just in a restricted number of occasions, the problematic of Northern Ireland and its possible reunification.
This subject has meant a demand of this party since its foundation and one of its ideological and historical pillar. However, the architects of this campaign were aware that the Irish society feels closer to the economical problems than the territorial issues of the past.
The slogan of Sinn Féin, that means “our day will arrive” in Gaelic, predicted a victory that not even the leaders of their own party were expecting. Since the birth of this political group, that was founded in 1986 under the leadership of Gerry Adams, Sinn Féin was always damaged because of its links with the IRA and its armed fight in the Northern Ireland conflict. Nevertheless, in a slow and progressive way, and through several elections, its percent of votes was increasing until, after the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, it received a 6.5% of the votes. At the last general elections, in 2016, the party already achieved the 13.8% that was not enough to face the old two-party system of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Even so, the situation changed at these elections when Sinn Féin achieved, finally, a majority support from the Irish people, being the most voted party of the citizens younger than 55 years old.
Still, this party presented a number of candidates that is not enough for forming a Government, forcing them to create a coalition or to seek new elections. By now, Mary Lou McDonald opts for the first option, declaring that she wants to form a Government for the people. “Ideally we want a government with no Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil in it. I have started the contact with other parties to explore over the next days whether or not that’s a possibility”, affirms the leader of the party.
It is clear that Ireland is moving to a new stage of its political history, and without any doubt, Sinn Féin will take a prominent part of it.
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