‘I WOULD PARDON ANYONE JAILED UNDER HATE LAW’
FORMER presidential candidate Peter Casey is making a return to politics, and plans to use the European elections as a launchpad for a second Áras bid.
In an exclusive interview with the Mail, Mr Casey revealed he is contesting the European elections on June 7 for the Midlands Northwest constituency.
‘It’s just for the presidential [election]... I’m not interested in Europe,’ he said.
Mr Casey finished second behind Michael D Higgins with 23% of the vote in the 2018 election. The incumbent won a landslide 56%.
In a wide-ranging interview, the businessman and former Dragons Den investor outlined a political ideology focusing on immigration, cultural identity and protectionism.
He railed against RTÉ and the Government’s hate speech legislation, with Minister for Justice Helen McEntee ‘examining’ potential changes to the legislation amid a revolt among the FG and FF backbenches.
Mr Casey vowed that if elected president, he will ‘pardon’ anyone convicted under any such hate speech legislation.
‘That’s why I’m not really concerned about this hate speech legislation, because if it got passed I’d just give everybody a pardon,’ he said.
Presidential pardons in Ireland have a high threshold and are extremely rare, with only seven granted since 1937.
Mr Casey is running as an independent, despite holding unsuccessful talks with the newly formed Independent Ireland party set up by TDs Michael Collins and Richard O’Donoghue. He says Ireland should reassess its relationship with Europe. ‘I think we’ve been dominated too much by Europe and Irish culture and identity has been eroded by Europe… I’d like to have the same relationship to Europe that Norway has,’ he said.
Mr Casey was also scathing of RTÉ, which has been engulfed in controversies for over a year.
The presidential hopeful says he has not paid his TV licence, does not intend to, and would pardon anyone prosecuted for failing to pay it. He added that RTÉ should be ‘sold off to the lowest bidder’.
‘It’s just nonsense, it’s [RTÉ] a sort of microphone for the Government,’ he said.
Asked if he believed in public service broadcasting, Mr Casey said ‘absolutely not’.
Mr Casey also insisted that he is not ‘anti-immigration’ but believes ‘legal immigration’ needs to be more controlled and we should seek a ‘moratorium’ on accepting more Ukrainian refugees.
Last year, a building Mr Casey planned to turn into a charitable accommodation centre for Ukrainian refugees was set alight in an arson attack. He believes it was because of misinformation that it was to be used for ‘illegal migrants’.
Mr Casey said he does not support the burning of asylum seeker accommodation, despite sharing a social media post by an Irish Freedom Party candidate showing a burning building that said: ‘Ireland will continue to burn as long as this Government works against Irish interests.’
The businessman said it is ‘quite natural and understandable for people in third world, underdeveloped countries’ to want to come to Ireland, but that they must do so legally and adhere to ‘Christian’ values.
He said: ‘I think Ireland has... an amazing culture which is really Christian. It’s a family-oriented culture and I
think that’s
‘Sell RTÉ off to the lowest bidder’
what makes us really special. Anybody’s welcome to come as long as you don’t come and try and change us… I don’t want Sharia law introduced into Ireland,’ he said.
‘If you want to, you know, go to a society that’s a Muslim society, there’s loads of them out there, by all means go there,’ he said.
Mr Casey secured 342,727 votes (23.35%) in the 2018 presidential election but lost out to President Michael D Higgins who polled 822,566 (55.81%).
Immigration was polling around 1% in 2018 as an issue of most importance to the electorate. Now, the issue is polling consistently as one of the most pressing issues at around 25%.
Last month an Ireland Thinks opinion poll for the Sunday Independent found that over a third of people would consider voting for a party or candidate with strong anti-immigrant views.
Support for Mr Casey surged in the 2018 presidential election after he made disparaging comments about the travelling community. He said that Travellers are ‘basically people camping in other people’s land’ and that house prices drop in areas where they settle.
He accused the community of ‘not paying their fair share of taxes in society’.
Mr Casey reiterated his belief that he does not believe Travellers should have been provided with their own ethnic status, which he claimed was a form of discrimination.
‘It’s just, it’s wrong to discriminate, period. You know, you should not discriminate, period. And I think it’s wrong that we discriminate in favour of a particular section of the community.’
Asked if he is concerned that he will be viewed as an antiimmigration, anti-Traveller and partisan candidate, Mr Casey replied: ‘I am not.’
Mr Casey was an unsuccessful in a bid to get elected to the European Parliament in 2019 when he finished fifth in the then-four seater Midlands Northwest constituency.
The boundary review last year added an extra seat to the sprawling constituency.
Among the high-profile candidates Mr Casey will compete against are jockey Nina Carberry, who is running for Fine Gael alongside sitting MEP and former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh.
Fianna Fáil is running three candidates in the constituency; former minister for agriculture and TD for Laois/Offaly Barry Cowen, Senator Niall Blaney and leader of the Seanad, Lisa Chambers.
Aontú leader and TD for Meath East Peadar Tóibín is also seeking to win a seat in the constituency.
Sitting MEP Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan is also seeking to hold on to his seat.
Sinn Féin have added former Northern agriculture minister Michelle Gildernew to their ticket alongside sitting MEP Chirs McManus, who was co-opted after Matt Carthy’s election to the Dáil.
If Mr Casey is elected as an MEP and subsequently elected as president he would select retiring Donegal councillor Nicholas Crossan to be co-opted into the vacant seat.
‘Not paying their fair share of taxes’