A golden opportunity to return a Sinn Féin MEP
In the Six Counties, the European election campaign is one of most
challenging ever fought by Sinn Féin. For the first time, the party could
swing an MEP seat from the Unionist camp. Here, European election candidate
Mitchel McLaughlin talks to Caítlin Doherty about why it is so important
for republicans to use their vote on Thursday, 10 June (polling in the 26
Counties is the following day).
CD: Why do you believe that Sinn Féin can win a European seat?
MMcL: On the last occasion, the unionists won a European seat with 133,000
votes. In the Assembly election last year, Sinn Féin polled 143,000 votes.
So obviously this is a genuine contest. There are four main parties in the
North and we are separated by just over 4 percentage points. Sinn Féin
intends to and believes it will be successful on this occasion.
Clearly one of the phenomenons of elections in the North over the past five
years has been the growth in the Sinn Féin vote. As a result the overall
nationalist vote has increased dramatically and it now has a 45% share of
the popular vote. So we are now in a period of transition that is totally
changing the political landscape. This European election represents a
further opportunity, particularly given the divisions in unionism.
CD: It has traditionally been a foregone conclusion that there would be two
unionist seats and only one nationalist one. What has encouraged this
growth in confidence that republicans can sway a seat from unionists?
MMcL: The growth of confidence is fostered by the fact that the Sinn Féin
vote has increased in successive elections and that the increase shows no
signs of slacking. We believe that not only in European elections but also
in the next local, Westminster and Assembly elections that Sinn Féin is on
course to becoming the largest party within nationalism.
We are putting out what is a very positive message for nationalism. In
European elections in the past it was a question of there only being one
nationalist. And perhaps from this has emerged this notion that John Hume
should strive to get the largest personal vote. But the Sinn Féin message
is more attractive. We are saying to nationalists that two nationalist
heads are better than one.
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Two nationalist heads are better than one
- Mitchel McLaughlin
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CD: Why is a European seat crucial for republicans?
MMcL: We believe it is critical that we continue to demonstrate the advance
and expansion of our electoral appeal. We also think that as we have proved
to be a radical dynamic in local politics, we will pursue this path at the
European level.
We do have to bear in mind that the incumbency in terms of the European
seat in the North has presided over those policies that have given us rural
decline, neglect of the inner city areas, and economic underdevelopment.
These are issues that Sinn Féin will address.
We also think that the international platform is vital for our party in
terms of promoting our peace strategy and the role we have played in
advancing the peace process so far. By voting for Sinn Féin on 10 June,
nationalists will be voting to consolidate and build a strategy to achieve
a lasting peace based on democracy, freedom, justice and equality.
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The European platform is vital in terms of promoting our peace
strategy
- Mitchel McLaughlin
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CD: The election campaign is being fought on a backdrop of loyalist
violence and murder bids. Do you not think that there is increasing
scepticism towards elections given that very little is changing for
nationalists in everyday life?
MMcL: I don't think this is true. If you reflect on the success Sinn Féin
has enjoyed over the period since the hunger strikes, it was in the teeth
of a very vicious counter insurgency war by the British. Republicans,
however, showed their resistance and ability to stand up for themselves by
going out to polls to vote for Sinn Féin. That same syndrome still applies
on a reduced scale. I also think that the spirit of indomitable resistance
will ensure that those who know the way forward is by demonstrating support
for the republican analysis and republican representation. Far from
being intimidated, people respond to suppression and repression by showing
that they are not lying down.
CD: Is it not paradoxical that Sinn Féin ``critically engages'' with the
European Union, given that the institution has a record of serious lack of
democracy and accountability and has promoted social and economic policies
that cause widespread concern?
MMcL: Clearly the European Union exists and clearly it impacts and in fact
in many ways it dominates policy and service provision on this island in an
increasing way. Sinn Féin's analysis of the EU and what it stood for has
proved correct. At the time the debate on joining the EU was raging, Sinn
Féin was the only party in Ireland that stood up and argued against it on
the basis that it would detrimentally impact on the ability of the Irish
people to use their own self-determination in relation to fiscal and
economic policy. We have not been proved wrong.
We have also argued against enlargement and continuing centralisation. For
precisely the same reasons we have to argue in the best interests of the
Irish people and therefore provide effective representation at every level,
may it be local, regional, national and now European level. We will make
alliances with progressive forces within the EU who recognise and
promote that same argument.
CD: Do you believe there is going to be any progress with the
implementation of the Good Friday Agreement before the European elections?
MMcL: That is down to those who are holding up that progress and those who
are prepared to allow David Trimble to continue exercising a veto over the
process. Essentially, that is down to Tony Blair. The ball is in his court.
He really has to confront the fact that David Trimble has broken promises,
not just to the parties including ourselves, but also to Tony Blair himself
on a number of occasions.
We are of a view that if David Trimble is allowed to stall the
implementation of the Agreement until after the elections, then he will
produce yet another reason why he cannot proceed in the very mouth of the
marching season. This means that the British government, while saying that
they wouldn't park the process, have effectively parked it.
We have warned constantly of the danger of the attacks that will be mounted
by loyalists in that political vacuum and the real possibility that there
will be no process to come back to.
CD: What is your message to republicans who feel totally disillusioned at
the way the peace process is logjammed?
MMcL: Reflect on all that we have been through as a struggle for the past
generation and a half. There have been many times it seemed that progress
wasn't possible. But republicans have always kept the faith. They have
developed the strategies, they have revised them, revisited them. They were
always guided by a clear vision of what our struggle was meant to achieve
and that is a free and a united Ireland. We believe we can achieve that and
that our struggle, whilst going through many different changes and phases
over that period, has been the one consistent factor of Irish life over the
same period.
Keep the faith!
Vision and consistency
If Mitchel McLaughlin were to be summed up in two words, it would be
consistency and vision. Aged 53, the Sinn Féin European candidate for the
Six Counties, who is married and lives in the Bogside area of Derry City,
is currently the party's National Chairperson and member of the party's Ard
Comhairle. In this leading role one of his major responsibilities is to
oversee the political development of the party and is in charge of its
overall functioning.
He first became politically active in the Civil Rights Association in 1968.
He then became a leading member of the National H-Blocks Committee and was
elected to Derry City Council in 1985.
Mitchel has played a central role in formulating Sinn Féin's peace
strategy, and was instrumental in the drawing up of the party's two peace
documents: Scenario for Peace and Towards a Lasting Peace in Ireland. In
1996, he was elected peace negotiator in the Forum election and was elected
to the Assembly for the Foyle constituency in June 1998.
However big and important his political responsibilities are, Mitchel
remains one of the warmest and most accessible political representatives.
EUROPEAN ISSUES
- Sinn Féin is committed to working for reform, accountability and
democracy in Europe, while advancing national democracy and economic and
social justice and promoting a 32-County political and economic identity.
- Sinn Féin believes that equality and ending exclusion and discrimination
must be at the heart of EU social policy.
- Sinn Féin is committed to the maintenance of positive neutrality and an
independent foreign policy.
- Sinn Féin believes that the manner in which EU Structural funds are
allocated and controlled needs to be reformed.
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