MARY LOU MCDONALD has kicked off this week on a defensive media blitz, pushing against accusations that her party is pivoting to the right on the issue of immigration.
Following a bruising European and local elections, the party carried out a review of what went wrong, with McDonald outlining the results to reporters over the weekend.
The review found that Sinn Féin had diverged from what its supporters wanted in the family and care referendums and on the issue of immigration.
She admitted her party had “lost the trust” of its regular supporters and claimed the party had diverged from “where most people are” on immigration.
McDonald also admitted that the party “got it wrong” in regard to the recent family and care referendums.
Since speaking to reporters, and in a somewhat break from tradition, McDonald has been busy replying to posts on X to shoot down suggestions that Sinn Féin is pivoting to the right on immigration. She has said this isn’t “anything of the kind”.
“Listening, understanding, responding and leading are the active ingredients of activism. We are a party of the working class and the left. Whether you like it or not,” she replied to one social media post.
She told another that it was “nothing to do with appeasing racists” and denied that her explanation for Sinn Féin not doing well in the recent elections is that they should have run with the crowd.
So is this the case of Sinn Féin adopting a ‘whatever you’re having yourself’ platform in a bid to shore up hemorrhaging votes?
What’s long been clear is that Sinn Féin has had a problem, particularly around their positioning on the immigration question.
Perhaps showing hubris about riding high in the polls for so long, the Sinn Féin machine did appear to experience a breakdown, with the party seeing support slide in recent months.
As the party moves to frame itself as a party that is capable of governing, it has been forced to take baby steps to the centre on some issues, so as to appeal to the middle classes, but in doing so it has isolated its grassroots working class vote on some issues.
Asked over the weekend whether the party’s evolving position on immigration would risk alienating some of its left-leaning voters, McDonald said that community concerns must be listened to and that many of those concerns related to local resources.
“I think there was a frustration among a section of our base that they weren’t being heard,” she said.
“And there was a belief that we didn’t have their backs and we didn’t reflect adequately, consistently and loudly enough the concerns that decent people have,” she added.
In truth, the party has avoided being drawn on the issue of immigration for some time, preferring to stay quiet rather than having to pin their colours to the mast.
In fact, after the first operation to remove the tents along the Grand Canal, McDonald failed to even mention it in Leaders’ Questions the next day. This is despite it leading the news agenda and the camp itself having become a microcosm for the asylum system as a whole.
The attempt to be all things to all people doesn’t appear to have paid off, which is why Sinn Féin is boomeranging on the immigration issue now.
In the run up to the elections, the position of the party did harden on the issue of immigration, and the latest The Journal /Ireland Thinks poll, and presumably their own internal polls, showed why.
Housing and immigration were two of the top motivators of Sinn Féin voters.
Voters who said housing was their top motivator in the European elections were predominantly Sinn Féin supporters.
Among Sinn Féin voters, housing was also the number one issue at 20%. Aside from liking the candidate (18%), immigration was third among Sinn Féin voters at 17%.
Appearing on Ireland AM this morning, McDonald said the party was “told directly by our base” that issues around immigration and resourcing of local services needs to be “aired respectfully”.
McDonald criticised the government for not rolling out reception centres, a recommendation that was given to ministers in 2019.
“We shouldn’t be in a position where local hotels or anything else are being used for this accommodation, or in the case of my own constituency, an old office block that’s not appropriate for the people who are living there,” she said.
She said Sinn Féin will publish its own immigration policy document next Monday on just where the party stands on the issue.
It is not just Sinn Féin who will have a immigration policy document, Fianna Fáil has also produced a working immigration document, where it called for all tent encampments to stopped, while Fine Gael updated its canvas guidebook for candidates providing further guidance on how to discuss migration with potential voters.
When asked specifically what the party stance is on the issue of immigration this morning however, the party leader was anything but clear.
She said:
“We live in a global village. People are coming in, going, it’s a fact of life. It’s not like back in the good old days. People travel now, for work, for study. People also flee conflict because of poverty and war,” she said.
“What we want is a system that’s humane, that’s sufficient, that’s fair, and that works,” she said.
In addition to the immigration finding from the election review, McDonald said the party wants her to be “more firm” and to show her “authentic self”.
Over the last few months, Sinn Féín has adopted a “wait and see” attitude to where the public mood would land.
We therefore await the party’s “authentic self” when it comes to the issue of immigration but all will become clear this time next week with the publication of its new policy document.
It’s colours will well and truly be pinned to the mast then and it will become clear whether the party, who wishes to be in government one day, can navigate, communicate and lead on this complex issue in a responsible manner, or whether it is simply playing to its base.
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