Simon Harris — A New Direction For Fine Gael?

After Leo Varadkar’s shock resignation as Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael on March 20th, speculation began about who the next Fine Gael leader — and by default, the next Taoiseach — would be.

As big hitters like Simon Coveney and Pascal Donohue ruled themselves out, failed former Minister for Health and current Minister for Further & Higher Education, Simon Harris, became the only runner.

As the only candidate for leadership, Harris was elected leader of Fine Gael in Athlone on March 24th. In his first speech as leader, his message to the core voter base was clear. He said Fine Gael would “take back the Tricolour” and bring Fine Gael “back to their roots”.

Strong words from the new Fine Gael leader, but what does he mean? When mentioning the Tricolour, Harris wasn’t talking about taking it back from the fascists, who have terrorised the country in the last 18 months. Harris was taking aim at Republicans and the Left. When he said Fine Gael would go back to their roots, he meant they would shore up their right-wing support, pander to the far-right and continue their policy of neoliberalism and privatising of vital services.

The mainstream media would have you believe that Varadkar’s time as Taoiseach was a liberal paradise, but in reality, his legacy is a deepening Cost of Living crisis and record homelessness with official figures rising to almost 14,000, including 4,000 children as of March 28th.

Varadkar and Harris are seen by the mainstream media as the politicians who brought about Marriage Equality and Repeal. In reality, it was long-standing working class activists who forced the change from below. Working class estates voted for progressive change in huge numbers and working class activists were on the ground in huge numbers during both campaigns. Fine Gael knew that by supporting these issues, they could increase their popularity. The political establishment was dragged to these positions because it was politically beneficial to them.

Fine Gael have historically been the party of the wealthy, conservative class in Ireland. Their history can be traced back to the reactionary pro-Treaty side of the Civil War. The pro-Treaty Cumann na nGaedheal led the first Free State government and the pro-Treaty IRA became Free State forces. When their support dropped after the rise of Fianna Fáil, the party joined with the National Centre Party and the outright fascist Blueshirts in 1933 to form Fine Gael. Their first leader was former Garda Commissioner and fascist leader Eoin O’Duffy.

Back to the present day — Fine Gael’s liberal veneer was only ever skin deep. Everyone is familiar with Varadkar’s ‘Welfare Cheats’ campaign but what is often overlooked is Harris’s Tory style approach to striking nurses. When he was Minister for Health during a nurses strike, he openly said that striking nurses should face financial penalties. Despite claiming to be progressive, his right-wing instincts were never far away.

With Fine Gael and the Irish political landscape, including Sinn Féin, moving further to the right, fascists will be even more emboldened. This means that the Radical Left has to fight in communities and workplaces to try to stop this shift. Poor working class communities have been failed miserably by the establishment. These communities haven’t recovered from the financial crash of 2008. When the “political centre”, i.e. mainstream politics, fails, it creates a vacuum in estates. We saw with the Water Charges campaign that communities can fight back and win, but when working class struggle is low as it is right now, racist ideas can permeate.

Socialists need to cut through the racist bullshit and scapegoating of migrants and refugees in working class areas. Working class people instinctively know that the housing crisis is directly linked to Fine Gael’s 13 years of neoliberal policies on housing for profit. Ireland’s biggest landlords are North American Vulture Funds. Currently there are around 160,000 empty and derelict properties in the 26 counties. There are at least 70 TDs who have registered as landlords (the real figure is significant more) and many of them are concentrated not just in government, but in Fine Gael.

Government TDs have a vested interest in ensuring the housing market remains a ‘for profit’ model. The overturning of the eviction ban has caused a tsunami of homelessness and caused even more hardship and misery for thousands of ordinary people.

The Radical Left must fight the establishment tooth and nail on housing. At a local and national level, socialist Councillors and TDs must make housing the bread and butter issue in the upcoming elections. With local elections around the corner, socialists need to go into the estates and offer solutions to working class people. Campaigns on derelict homes and compulsory purchases, spearheaded by People Before Profit representatives, have sprung up around the country. These are positive short-term solutions that can give people hope.

On April 23rd there is a Raise The Roof Housing demonstration and on May 25th there is a National Housing demonstration. These take place during the local and European election campaigns. These demos must be a focal point for elections. If the Left ignores the issue of housing, then working class estates will turn to the far-right in anger. We have to cut through this anger with actual solutions and pin the blame on the people who’ve caused record homelessness — the government, Vulture Funds, greedy landlords and the bankers.

We don’t have any illusions in the political system but at a minimum, getting the rotten Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil-Green coalition out is a must.

Simon Harris is an out and out Tory. He doesn’t care for change, not in housing, cost of living or vital services. The ‘TikTok Taoiseach’ has said he won’t call a General Election and wants the Dáil to go full term. He’s going to try to shore up Fine Gael’s support to stop electoral annihilation, but if Socialists fight for housing in estates and empower the working class to fight back, we’ll see the end of Fine Gael in power for now.