The new president of Ireland, Catherine Connolly, declares herself independent. He was supported by the Left with the motto: neutrality outside, inclusion inside. A rap on the Conservative government. Analysis: “Peace, neutrality, unity, inclusion”. With this political strategy, the 68-year-old legal and clinical psychologist Kathryn Connolly, the ninth child of a deeply Catholic family, emerged as the winner of the presidential election in the Republic of Ireland, with a percentage of 64%, leaving behind her main rival from the ruling party Fine Gael, Heather Humphries, by a wide margin.

“I will be the president of all Irish people, a president who listens, who reflects, who speaks when necessary. Together we will build a new democracy that values ​​every individual citizen,” Connolly said in her speech from Dublin Castle shortly after the results were announced.

Succeeding Michael Higgins, who completed two consecutive seven-year terms as president, Connolly becomes the 10th president of the Republic of Ireland. She also becomes the third female president after Mary Robinson (1990-1997) and Mary McAleese (1997-2011).

Both of them had breathed new life into the presidential institution not only in the Republic of Ireland but also in Europe, promoting a more modern reading of the presidential institution in parliamentary, majority systems, making use of the possibilities of social intervention given to them by the Constitution – something similar had been attempted in Greece by Katerina Sakellaropoulou by opening the presidency to a wider social dialogue.

Presidential elections with a political message

In Ireland the presidential institution is also symbolic, associated with mainly formal powers as well as powers of representation abroad. At the same time, however, the process of electing the president by direct, universal suffrage gives the presidential institution greater popular legitimacy so that it can function as a guardian of the constitutional institutions, with a more substantial guarantor function. It can also call a referendum and exercise a veto – powers that are activated with constitutional sparing because, here again, the parliamentary government and the prime minister have the first role.

The predominance of Connolly, a former speaker of the Irish Parliament, is a cut for another reason. He had the support of a wider coalition of left-wing parties, from Sinn Féin to Labor and the Social Democrats who came together for the first time, overcoming the fragmented image of left-wing forces in the country. Connolly’s victory also acts as a slap in the face to the two conservative, centre-right governing parties Fianna Fáil and Gwynne Gael.

In what was essentially the first chance for a president from the wider left, voters wanted to express their frustration with conservative coalition government on a range of issues: from the housing crisis and the rising cost of living to crime and immigration.

According to the first analyzes of the election result, 83% of Connolly’s voters were indeed young people aged 18 to 34, sending their own message of total change.

Criticism of EU, NATO, USA, Germany

Connolly is an advocate of the Reunification of the Republic of Ireland with Northern Ireland, has been fighting for decades to protect the climate, human rights, social justice and everyone’s right to a decent home.

In terms of foreign policy, she is known for her public, staunch pro-Palestinian positions, has condemned crimes in Gaza and has been highly critical of the EU, NATO and the US. He is in favor of the neutrality of the country and against the increase in defense spending.

Regarding Brussels in particular, he accuses the Commission of “a trend of increasing militarization”, while he has compared Germany’s rearmament after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to that of Hitler in the 1930s, as observed by the German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau.

It remains to be seen how the “collaboration” with the conservative government will work in practice, but also what will be its imprint on foreign policy in the end – if it chooses to activate certain powers of intervention given to it by the Constitution of its country.

Sources: DW, Irish Times, FR