Left-wing parties have rounded on Sinn Féin over its recent policy direction, raising doubts about the prospect of a future left alliance.
Tensions between the largest party of the Opposition and others on the left, including the Social Democrats, Labour and People Before Profit, have grown in recent months, fracturing the tentative progressive alliance formed during Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign.
The results of the Dublin Central and Galway West byelections, won respectively by Daniel Ennis of the Social Democrats and Seán Kyne of Fine Gael, showed many left-wing voters not giving preferences to Sinn Féin.
The party’s recent stances it has adopted on the issues of migration and reproductive rights have drawn public criticism from senior figures in the other parties.
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Labour leader Ivana Bacik said voters don’t believe Sinn Féin is left wing, “which is so evidently borne out by the transfer pattern in the byelections”.
Bacik said she wanted her party to form an alliance with the Green Party and the Social Democrats, to negotiate equally with Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael about a future coalition government after the next election.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said Sinn Féin has drifted to the right and needs to decide if it is going to commit to “consistently” left-wing positions. Murphy said left-wing voters in Dublin Central were “put off” by Sinn Féin’s recent policy positions.
Three Social Democrats TDs said the party was taken aback by Sinn Féin’s recent decision to abstain on its abortion reform Bill. “I think it was a huge mistake, and we know it came up on the doors in Dublin Central from women voters in particular,” one said. “It’s an example of Sinn Féin not knowing who they are talking to.”
There is also a growing concern within the Social Democrats about the hardening of Sinn Féin’s stance on migration, including from Ukraine, its climate justice policies, proposals on taxation and position on animal welfare issues, including hare coursing and greyhound racing.
Social Democrats politicians pointed to the transfer patterns in both Dublin Central and Galway West.
In Dublin Central there were strong transfers from Labour to the Green Party, and from the Greens to the Social Democrats. More than half of the People Before Profit transfers went to the Social Democrats, with just under a quarter going to Sinn Féin candidate Janice Boylan. Sinn Féin received significant transfers from veteran criminal Gerry Hutch.
In Galway West, where there was a more formal vote-left pact, which included Sinn Féin, its candidate Mark Lohan was eliminated early before the votes of the Social Democrats and Labour candidate could be distributed.
Within Sinn Féin, councillors and grassroots members have taken offence at comments about their party by Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns. Speaking at the weekend, Cairns said Sinn Féin “may be at a crossroads with a number of issues, that’s a matter for them”.
“But I think they need to figure out where they’re going,” she said.
On Monday, Cairns further clarified her remarks and said one example was Sinn Féin’s recent abstention on a Social Democrats Bill seeking to expand access to abortion on medical grounds in Ireland. “I think that’s just an example of something where they don’t seem to know what their position is,” she said.
Those within Sinn Féin who spoke to The Irish Times have dismissed the criticisms, with a number of local representatives claiming the Social Democrats are either divorced from working-class communities or preparing to go into government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
“I’m not going to take a lecture on left-wing politics from the Social Democrats, with all due respect,” one Sinn Féin politician said.
