People Before Profit call on Sinn Féin to join left-wing alliance
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has written to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald proposing an alliance of parties on the left ahead of the general election.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has written to Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald proposing an alliance of parties on the left ahead of the general election.
Mr Murphy said Ireland could learn an important lesson from the recent French elections on how to combat the rise of the far-right.
The New Popular Front (NFP), a left-green alliance emerged as the winner of France's election with 182 MPs.
Against the odds, the NFP alliance, which consists of Unbowed France (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), Greens, and Communists, became the largest force in parliament but fell far short of the 289 seats required for an absolute majority.
Mr Murphy said that the alliance's victory has given people across Europe hope in the face of the hard right rising up elsewhere.
Scroll for results in your area
The latest opinion polls indicate that Ireland will return the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government with the Green Party replaced by some form of right-wing Independents or perhaps the Labour Party, he said.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Mr Murphy revealed that he has written to Ms McDonald seeking a meeting with Sinn Féin to appeal to them and to others on the left to come together to establish "a left frontier" to go into the next election.
Describing what a left front in Ireland would look like, he said it would have a clear 'vote left, transfer left' official pact between parties and a common commitment to say to the people that they will not go into coalition with Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil.
The commitment to refrain from such a coalition is just one of the bottom-line issues underlining the proposed alliance.
The second is a clear commitment not to engage in any scapegoating of asylum seekers.
The Dublin TD accused Sinn Féin of having scapegoated migrants in the leadup to the European and local elections calling the move an "absolute disaster".
"I think that there are a lot of people in Sinn Féin who are reflecting on that, realising that it didn't work, realising that it was a mistake.
"So we certainly hope that they would be open to a different strategy more in line with what the New Popular Front did in France."
Sinn Féin has been contacted for comment.
The parties need to reject the framing that asylum seekers are the problem, Mr Murphy said, and instead assert that the government is the problem and the economic system which prioritises profit is the problem.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
