Greens ‘crisitunity’ could prove their downfall

SINCE the emperor bought new clothes, few have been so stark in their political self-delusion as the Green Party this week in their insistence that the relevance of their agenda, to save the world, will help save them from their near brush with death in last week’s elections.

“We will survive. We’re a party that is based on an idea and you can’t kill an idea,” party leader, John Gormley said on Monday morning when he woke up having lost all but three of the party’s 18 councillors.

“We are part of an international movement that is going to define the politics of this century,” said their other cabinet minister, Eamon Ryan, despite both Green councillors losing their seats in his local South Dublin County Council.

“We will survive because the Green agenda is still an extremely relevant political agenda,” said failed euro-candidate, Deirdre De Burca, who self-inflicted further embarrassment by calling for a re-count to get ahead of the Green Party defector, Patricia McKenna, even if it was to reclaim up to €38,000 she had personally spent on her campaign.

Writing on his blog, Ciarán Cuffe, simply described the election wipe-out as “a crisitunity”.

None of their TDs managed to get councillors elected in their areas with the exception of Mary White.

But if the Greens continue to “deal with the devil”, as their coalition partnership with Fianna Fáil has been described, they will become poisoned with the same venom delivered in the kiss of death to the PDs.

For parties like Fianna Fáil, a change of leadership is often enough to cleanse its past and start afresh.

But for the Greens, a leadership replacement would risk causing too much internal party strife by allowing members to raise concerns on issues such as the Hill of Tara and the Ringsend incinerator.

A bigger problem facing the party is maintaining a distinct identity. What they describe as their “distinct agenda” is no longer theirs since the party politicisation of environmentalism.

When it entered Government, the Green Party was described as being “in transition”. Failing to become more than a niche party could be the biggest problem for the Greens in the long term (if they have one).

For now, they remain in the ambiguous situation of a “crisitunity”.