THE EUROPEAN Parliament elections in Dublin will end up as a straight fight for the third seat between her party and Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin MEP Mary Lou McDonald has said.
Launching her campaign last night, she acknowledged that she faces a major battle to be returned because the constituency is being reduced from a four to a three-seater.
However, she said the June 5th election will be “a seminal one” for Dublin’s working class districts, who are facing cuts in welfare rates and others benefits in the December budget.
“People know that things are not good, but they also know that they could get an awful lot worse in December,” said Ms McDonald.
She acknowledged that working class districts traditionally have a poor turnout for European elections, but she insisted that Sinn Féin will marshal higher numbers this year. “This is a crunch election for us, yes, and for me. We are in this to win, notwithstanding the scale of the challenge.
“Any election you take on you can win or you can lose. That is just the nature of political contests. You have to fight to win, but you also have to be equipped to lose,” she said.
Identifying outgoing Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan as her main competition, she said she believed that both Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell and Labour’s Proinsias De Rossa will be safely re-elected: “My message to the people of Dublin and beyond will be a straightforward one. If you want change, vote for change. Don’t let Fianna Fáil continue to punish you for their mistakes.”
Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, who attended the launch, said: “I think that this will be a highly volatile election.
“I think the Government parties are facing into this with some considerable trepidation.”