What is Fine Gael’s message beyond bashing Sinn Féin?
The party’s relentless attacks on the Opposition are proving counter-productive
During a confidence vote on the Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar on Tuesday, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin traded insults. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
The Leo Varadkar confidence vote debate last week has been rightly characterised as a turning point in Irish political discourse. One wonders how we will turn back.
Jungian psychoanalysis would depict Sinn Féin as Fine Gael’s shadow. Pretty much every basis Fine Gael attacks Sinn Féin on, is an unconscious part of their own identity they cannot recognise in themselves. They attack Sinn Féin on the party’s wealth, as if the pursuit of wealth, and a reliance on wealthy voters, is not intrinsic to Fine Gael.