Left parties exploring united front for presidential election

Labour leader Ivana Bacik has called for centre-left parties to agree on a candidate for this year’s presidential election – and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has teased involvement in the process.

The Sunday Independent reports that Bacik wrote to Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan and Green leader Roderic O’Gorman about the parties coming together to endorse a candidate in this year’s presidential election.

“I think it would be appropriate that our parties, which share a centre-left, environmental vision for Ireland, would come together to consider how best we could approach the next presidential contest,” the letter read.

Bacik’s letter follows similar calls before and after the general election for her party, the Social Democrats and the Greens to work together.

O’Callaghan told the paper that his party is “very much open to working with her to get a left, progressive candidate in the field.”

“Our focus will be on reaching out not just to other parties but to civil society to see if we can build a broad coalition, like we saw in campaigns such as Repeal,” he noted.

O’Gorman noted that the Greens backed Michael D Higgins in his re-election bid in 2018 and did not field a candidate; he added that any candidate backed by the Greens would need to live up to their standards.

Any number of names have been thrown around for the presidency – names like Belfast SDLP MP Claire Hanna, Galwegian left-wing independent TD Catherine Connolly and left–wing independent MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan have been thrown around the rumour mill – but one of the favourites for the candidacy is veteran Dublin TD Róisín Shortall.

In the event Shortall wins the presidency, she wouldn’t have far to travel; her TD of Dublin North-West is a short drive to Phoenix Park.

Shortall’s CV is extensive; she served as a Labour TD for Dublin North-West between 1992 and 2012, quit Labour in 2012 over austerity measures and tensions with Fine Gael’s health minister James Reilly, co-founded the Social Democrats in 2015, served as their co-leader until 2023, and served as a Social Democrats TD until 2024.

Her record of seven straight general election wins is a record for an Irish female politician.

Announcing she would not be seeking a Dáil seat last summer, Shortall said “while I have decided to step down from frontline politics, I hope to continue to work to build on progress already made in the development of the Social Democrats. I truly believe the party can make a major contribution to creating a better Ireland for all.”

Shortall has emerged as an early favourite in the polls, with a December 2024 poll carried out by the Irish Daily Mail having her lead the pack in a hypothetical ballot.

A December 2024 poll had the Social Democrats co-founder at 32% in a poll of hypothetical candidates, ahead of Fine Gael’s potential candidate, former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald on 29%, former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach Bertie Ahern on 21% and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams on 18%.

The sample size for the poll was 1,000 people.

When asked for comment, Shortall told the Mail she “had not decided” her next course of action and was “winding down and tying up loose ends” after 32 years in the Dáil and indicated she would be making a decision on the bid in the early part of 2025.

Notably, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told reporters on Tuesday “it makes sense for us to work together and I think that we can,” when asked about the centre-left parties joining together to back a presidential candidate.

Speaking after a minor front bench reshuffle, McDonald iterated that there has been “little” discussion within Sinn Féin internally about the presidential election and that agreeing to back a candidate not from their own party would need to be discussed internally.

Sinn Féin were notably the only party to field a candidate in the 2018 presidential election with the rest of the candidate field being independents.

Their candidate, then-MEP Liadh Ní Riada, finished fourth with 6.4% of the vote with Higgins cruising to re-election with 55.8% of the vote.

McDonald said that whoever succeeds President Michael D Higgins “will have big shoes to fill,” saying he has been an “incredible” president.

She added that whoever takes up office in Phoenix Park in November of this year should be “committed to Irish unity and to a vision of the future of our country”.

“I think working together, we can actually be quite a powerful force in the Dáil,” McDonald noted, with images of McDonald and Bacik side-by-side outside the Dáil and facing the media amid the ongoing row about speaking time sending a message to the government that the opposition has a genuine interest in showing a united front in the 34th Dáil.

“The government, by definition, has the numbers – but that does not mean that we can shape influence policy and outcomes for people.”

With Bertie Ahern testing the waters for a presidential bid himself – he told a Trinity crowd “we’ll see” when asked about a bid in late January – the starting gun has been fired for October in the race to succeed President Higgins.