Ireland’s political discourse quality has continually declined lower and lower in recent years. From COVID lockdown gas-lighting, to migration denial and seemingly permanent housing crisis, Irish politics is uniquely stale. Starved of new ideas, Irish political parties inevitably borrow policies from their European Union counter-parts. But just as the successes of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz are absent from the mind of Irish lawmakers, so too are those of Robert Fico’s SMER-SD.
Speaking at a November 17 gathering to celebrate the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which brought an end to the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico made the case for a much-needed political reform to parliamentary democracy—the reduction of operative political parties in the state. Such a proposal—sincerely reformist in nature, and designed to preserve the stability of the democratic republic as a mode of government—should appear at the forefront of Irish politico minds.
Simply put, Fico argued that Slovakia could not be properly governed due to the large number of parties operating in the parliamentary system—creating fragile multi-party coalition governments that send party manifestos into a political melting pot.
It is no coincidence that as the quality of Ireland’s political discourse has declined, so too have political parties engaged in increasing ideological—or at times institutional—fragmentation. Whether it be on the basis of career clout chasers like Stephen Donnelly who co-founded the Social Democrats only to jump ship for a Ministerial portfolio in Fianna Fáil, or leftist ideologues in People Before Profit, fragmentation and division is a staple of Irish political life.
Consider for instance the prevalence of micro-parties, each seeking to shaft the other for electoral gain, yet presenting an artificial “united front” in every election cycle. To streamline Irish parliamentary politics—perhaps give it more cohesion—the Labour Party, the Greens, Social Democrats, and People Before Profit (which is itself a party comprised of parties) ought to lay-down the knives and assimilate into a singular far-left, or left-populist political organisation. Similarly, across the nascent populist-right, Independent Ireland, Aontú, and any other populist-minded independents, ought to be forced into a singular political grouping.
Likewise, the political centre is undergoing a prolonged identity crisis that can only be solved by the dissolution of the gormless Fianna Fáil party, and its membership splitting between a forcibly centre-right Fine Gael, and reformed centre-left Sinn Féin.
However, at its core, the fundamental bane of functionality in Irish politics is the existence of independent electoral representatives, whose refusal to stake their names to political platforms reflects the selfish nature of their office. In a reformed political system, the “right” or entitlement to run for public office as an individual should be outright banned.
Here, Fico’s comments ring true, that to maintain a functional parliamentary democracy “thirty-one parties cannot run, and we cannot form a government based on broad coalitions that are unable to function. This form of democracy is harmful to the Slovak Republic.“ Similarly, with a plethora of independents and micro-parties, Irish parliamentary politics pigeon-holes itself into a bizarre arena in which national issues are subordinated to parish-pump politics and niche ideological grievances.
Dáil Éireann and the Electoral Commission, should they wish to wake Ireland from the languishing neglect of its political system, must exercise the powers of the state to push through a direly needed reform bill to curtail the dysfunctionality of the multi-party system.
Internal party conflicts should be more prevalent, indeed as they were historically within Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael throughout the twentieth century. Furthermore, Ireland has gone from having a parliament of three, sometimes four parties throughout the twentieth century, to a Dáil composed of ten political parties—not to mention independents, let alone those who only hold council seats, or inactive yet still registered political parties.
Irish political parties have fragmented over petty—sometimes down-right irrelevant—disputes, all reflecting interest groups willing to air their concerns to the same audience, and thus dividing the spoils repeatedly into political oblivion. Nobody can impact political change, because they experience no political pressures.
Would anybody doubt for a moment that Ireland’s democratic system would function more rigidly, demand more from our politicians than petty localism, if the number of political parties in the state was constitutionally limited to say—four?
In his November 17 comments, Fico stated that democracy is fundamentally a competition “between the best for the best ideas”—reflecting both the importance of political leadership and the robustness of policies. Yet, in Slovakia, Fico stated the multi-party parliamentary system had become “a sea for a ship of fools” creating an extremely low barrier of entry to politics and governance. These trends are all too similar to Ireland.
While the political left may cry that such comments undermine democracy, they are in fact the only means of preserving a robust, republican mode of governance.
Republics are about debate, meritocracy, and the common good—all things which contemporary Ireland has abandoned, whether it is elected officials gas-lighting the public on their migration policy record, or the absurd quantity of so-called “independent” representatives across the country, the simple fact of the matter is that the Irish state needs electoral reform.
SMER-SD, it should be noted, is not a right-wing populist party, rather its political ethos and principles originate from a Christian, social democratic European tradition more akin to the mid-twentieth century “golden era” of parliamentary systems. Fico’s statements are an accurate reflection of the political dilemmas now faced in many parliamentary democracies across Europe, where political fragmentation has hindered stable governance. Far from Holly Cairn’s brand of faux-socialism, or Mette Frederiksen’s amoral technocratic liberalism–SMER-SD is a centre-left patriotic party.
Stable governance is about more than just the consistency of party policy and action, but the calibre of people participating within the system. To reiterate Fico’s statement, debate “between the best for the best ideas.” Parties require the power to implement policies for which they received democratic mandate, but this confers a responsibility to ensure the calibre of persons elected on the party ticket.
Ficoist democratic reforms could be the only means to end Ireland’s stultifying parliamentary “diversity”, and avert the Irish Republic from the path of becoming a failed state. To become a normal country with a healthy democracy, Ireland requires: one left-populist party, one centre-left party, one centre-right party, and one populist-right party.
The incessant internal bickering between Ireland’s political factions on all sides, precipitating division and separation, is a fundamental trait of Irish democracy. It would be prudent for the state to introduce legislation that restricts the number of political parties permissible to operate into the state.
Ficoism may in fact be the natural trajectory of the Irish Republic in the coming years, the economically left-wing currents stimulated by the perennial housing crisis, and the righteous outrage over replacement migration suggests that Ireland’s political arena is ripe for its own SMER-SD.
Far from political fantasy football, such a solution in streamlining parliamentary politics would precipitate much needed alterations to the country’s political attitudes and approach to statecraft. Irish political scientist Peter Mair once remarked that in Ireland “we see the State as something you can milk for your own benefit, rather than something you sustain and contribute to.” In essence, the Irish people have a state, yet we refuse to use its apparatus for anything outside of selfishness.
People have for far too long seen participation in parliamentary politics as an entitlement—the “right” to be an independent, or partied cute hoor—when in reality political office is a privilege. Ireland needs to raise the barrier for entry into politics, and it must start with tangible reforms to parliamentary democracy.
The zeitgeist of the twenty-first century is sovereigntist, and countries like Ireland which neglect to seize the moment at hand, will be starved—literally and figuratively.
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