Pressure On Labour To Spurn FG Advances

Unions and even the party's youth membership are piling pressure on the Labour party to spurn the seduction of power and refuse Fine Gael's offer of joining a coalition government.

On Friday, the leader of the second largest union affiliated to Labour called on the party to abandon the ongoing negotiations between the two parties.

Speaking at a press conference in the Buswells Hotel, Unite regional secretary Jimmy Kelly said the Labour Party has an historic opportunity to become the official opposition in the Dáil and that campaigning with civil society groups, the Left had an opportunity to present the Irish people with a "real alternative to Fine Gael’s programme of austerity, privatisation, and income cuts".

On Wednesday, Mr Kelly wrote to 37 Labour TD's saying that the decision on the future of Irish politics lied "solely with the Labour Party".

Mr Kelly acknowledged it was not an easy choice, saying it was tempting to move to the government side of Dail Eireann, but urge the party to "hold its nerve", and to avoid becoming a "cover for austerity measures that hurt the most vulnerable and the poorest in society".

"A cobbled together Fine Gael minority government, or even a coalition between them and their ‘soul mates’ in Fianna Fáil would not last under the strong sustained and coherent opposition that the left would bring.

"To choose coalition with Fine Gael would be to step back into the outdated alignment of civil war politics based on the colour of a shirt rather than the policies that both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael hold dear. Fianna Fáil would lead the opposition and take on the oxygen of relevance they need to have any hope of recovery."

Mr Kelly's calls come only days after two Labour public representatives and the Chair of Labour’s Youth wing also urged the party to join the opposition benches. Labour's youth party made its opposition to a coalition clear on Thursday, asking its members not to distribute any election literature that mentioned Fine Gael.

(DW/GK)