Don’t Be Fooled by Fine Gael’s Trasformismo on June 7th

Liberalism in Ireland is characterised by its elusiveness. Not in the sense of effaced, ‘Wide Eyes Shut’-esque coteries in the tradition of the Marquis De Sade jettisoning policies contra the agenda of liberals – sadly, our liberal political class, embodied by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, are too lame to form such networks, and at best are susceptible to their leftist counterparts who do; in the interests of avoiding a defamation suit, I’ll eschew names.

Rather, by ‘elusive’, I refer to their nigh-inability, or alternatively their unwillingness, to adhere to a principle independent of expediency; the left has socialism (and Palestine), whilst the right’s provenance is nationalism. The liberals? Nada, nothing.

Don’t believe me? Let’s briefly consider the career of Leo Varadkar.

The poster child of liberal Ireland: gay, middle class, and half-Indian. Over the last decade, Leo Varadkar was at the fore of liberalising measures and tendencies on our Island. His face was conspicuous, whether the issue was gay marriage, abortion, or abrogating the inert constitutional prohibition against blasphemy.

Yet, Leo, as many on both the right and the left came to realise, was a far more duplicitous figure than even Fine Gael tended to produce. Despite being half-Indian, he took an ostensibly tough line on immigration, as can be evinced by his election leaflets during this era. Despite being gay, he opposed Gay Marriage until the precipice of the referendum on this matter in 2015.

Irish men and women ought to have asked themselves: if he was willing to voice positions contrary to the interests of those akin to him, what would he be willing to do to you?

We need not get mired in counterfactuals. We witnessed what he and his colleagues had in mind for Irish society in March; the Irish people responded resoundingly with a “No” vote that precipitated Varadkar’s resignation.

He was formally succeeded by his colleague Simon Harris on 09 April 2024. A weaselly man, offensive in his inoffensiveness, Harris’ curriculum vitae demonstrates his timely diligence at making a cup of coffee for the local FG bogger-gombeen TD he interned with in 2002 and…ehh..well, not much else really.

Despite his uncanny similarity to a lanky pre-pubescent teen making his confirmation, - an admittedly trite point, unbefitting of MEON’s renown as the brain trust for Ireland’s clandestine Poitín industry – Harris has made a concerted effort to appear tough and macho since assuming Leo’s former station.

The rhetoric is tougher – “let’s take our flag back” – and Harris’ voice has deepened, leading many to speculate whether Harris is currently undergoing masculinising hormone therapy. Worked wonders for Thomas O’Reilly, who can now finally grow facial hair.

Concomitantly Harris has promised to take a tougher stance on immigration, an ostensible reversal of Fine Gael’s commitment to liberalisation. Vacillation toward the right was adumbrated by comments made by then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar vis-à-vis Sinn Féin. Varadkar tweeted that the left had rejected middle class white men – tokenism to the attract the right, indubitably, but notable nevertheless.

How has Harris’ shift to the right, undoubtably a result of anxiety that “far right” parties and independents will profit from the election tomorrow and the General Election in 2025, manifested heretofore? Considered via a prima facia lens, Harris has seemingly taken action; the tents on Mount Street were cleared. However, these same migrants dispersed down the road to the canal and elsewhere.

Whilst it’s true that they – I’m specifically referring to the migrants domiciled on the canal – were later moved, they soon returned with the assistance of activists and tents courtesy of certain NGOs and charities in the locale.

This is demonstrative of the government’s inability to handle our migration crisis, a crisis which impinges on every other crisis, whether it be housing or infrastructure related. Acting in a tokenistic manner to appease the right, they’ll disperse alleged asylum seekers from their make-shift tent cities without a broader plan of where these people will go – in turn, a vacuum is filled which leftist, anti-Irish NGOs are willing to fill. Only a comprehensive solution can quash our migration crisis.

For the student of history, especially one literate enough to be acquainted with liberalism’s odyssey through the ages, Simon Harris’ pivot is an omen of things to come. The techniques of the ruling political strata of post-Risorgimento Italy are particularly instructive. Their strategy, known as the Trasformismo, defined a generation of Italian politics.

Pioneered by the leader from of the Historical Right (in essence a classical liberal party), Camillio Benso, the Count of Cavour, this strategy aimed to isolate the left and the right, by forming coalitions with elements of parties to the left or right of them. Fine Gael abided by this tradition via entering coalition with Labour in 2011 and the Greens in 2020. One could foresee Fine Gael entering government with a moderate anti-immigration party down the line; the vociferous rhetoric employed in such a scenario would mask the inert policies.

Another case study to consider is closer to home. Our nearest neighbour, the United Kingdom, was once home to an electorally powerful nationalist movement in the form of the National Front. Fearing that NF would eat into the Tory’s base, Margaret Thatcher, regrettably loved by conservatives everywhere, averred that, if elected, she would halt immigration into Britain; she broke this promise, as exemplified by her admittance of South Asian migrants into Britain in the 1980s.

For the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, the term trasformismo is defined as a ploy whereby a ruling party attempts to assimilate another party into its fold, or rhetorically convince the latter’s base that the former, more powerful party has shifted its stance. The end result of both techniques is the same: neutralisation of the people or party, and thereby the idea they espoused.

The relationship between the white working class and the Tories is an example of Stockholm syndrome at scale. Once achieved, this relationship is difficult for insurgent political causes to quash. Against tokenistic half-measures, let us prove to Fine Gael that the Irish are not a foolish people - vote for nationalists on June 7th!