by Lorenzo Rossi
Independent left-wing politics Catherine Connolly she will be the new president of Ireland. Supported by left-wing parties, including Sinn Féinthe main opposition and nationalist force, Connolly achieved the 63.4 percent of preferences, surpassing its rival by more than 30 points Heather Humphreysformer minister of the center-right party Fine Gaelwho governs in coalition with the centrist Fianna Fáil from 2020. Humphreys stopped at 29.4 percent.
Although the first official results arrived mid-afternoon, Connolly’s victory was taken for granted since the morning, when counting began. The unofficial projections of the so-called talliescollected seat by seat by volunteers, party members, journalists and analysts, had already indicated it as largely successful. Based on these data, Humphreys had already admitted defeat at 3pm, when the official results were still poor.
Connolly and Humphreys were the only two candidates. Polls had her ahead by 15-19 points, but the margin turned out to be much larger. A third candidate, Jim Gavin of Fianna Fáil, had withdrawn three weeks ago, too late to be excluded from the ballot: he still collected 7.2 percent of the vote.
The fact that there were only two candidates was not received positively. The turnout stopped at 46 percenta low figure but slightly higher than the historic low of 43.9 recorded in the last presidential elections. Even more significant is the 13 percent of invalid ballotsalmost all in protest: if confirmed, it would be the highest level in Irish electoral history.
In Ireland the president has mainly ceremonial functionsbut in recent years the role has gained visibility thanks to the more political interpretation of Michael D. Higginsthe outgoing president, who in two terms has contributed to guiding the public debate.
This election campaign, unlike the previous ones, was highly politicized. The discussion has also moved to topics unrelated to presidential powers, such as foreign policy. Connolly, in particular, has spoken out several times in favor of Palestinian causea position that helped differentiate her from her opponent.
After Gavin’s retirement, the feud turned into one direct clash between government and anti-government campsembodied respectively by Humphreys and Connolly.
Connolly, 68 years oldhas never held government positions but has been able to intercept the votes of youngmany of them disillusioned with the centrist parties that have dominated the political scene for decades and have failed to resolve the serious housing crisis of the country, despite the fact that Ireland has significant resources deriving from multinational taxation.
The newly elected has built her success also thanks to a very effective social media campaign and to unexpected endorsements, such as that of the Northern Irish rap group Kneecapwho openly supported her.
