Anyone-But-Leo camp want Frances in the Park and Harris at the helm
FRANCES Fitzgerald for the Áras and Simon Harris for leader, that’s the latest strategy being put about by Fine Gael’s Anyone-But-Leo camp.
After a dreadful year for Housing Minister Simon Coveney, Enda Kenny supporters increasingly see the rising star as their best ‘Leo out’ candidate.
But intriguingly, Mr Harris’s mentor, Minister Fitzgerald, is another casualty of shifting moods.
Instead of a leadership bid, she is emerging, in a curious consolation prize, as the ‘surprise’ Fine Gael candidate for the Presidential campaign in 2018. The party’s determination to contest the Presidency has been hardened by President Higgins’s speech on Fidel Castro. While he has yet to say if he will seek a second term, senior party figures told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The Castro frolic was the last straw. Actions have consequences and we have decided not to allow Michael D a clear run.’
Ms Fitzgerald has previously indicated she intends to contest the leadership of Fine Gael when the opportunity arises.
The Tánaiste is believed to be hoping to emerge as a centrist candidate should a bitter leadership battle develop between Mr Varadkar and Mr Coveney. However, after a difficult period in Justice, senior figures across all factions of the divided party believe her hopes are ‘fatally fading’.
However, she is not believed, at this stage in her career, to be enthused about a life in the Park.
Senior party figures warned: ‘Things are changing swiftly, if a certain person [Varadkar] takes over, Frances will be in trouble if they decide a new generation should run the country.’
One party grandee, who is close to the Taoiseach, noted: ‘A race for the Presidency would provide Frances with a respectable way out. She has a bit of the Hillary Clinton about her, a bit more pleasant, she dresses well, she would be perfect, polite, as nice as pie and no dangerous views on anything.’
The recent declaration of interest by Mr Harris in the Fine Gael leadership came as a serious blow to Ms Fitzgerald.
She and the Health Minister are politically close, but, at a recent speech in a Young Fine Gael conference Mr Harris cited the advice John F Kennedy got from his father, that successful politicians ‘don’t wait your turn’.
One minister said: ‘Frances will be very surprised, Simon was supposed to be the campaign manager but the apprentice has caught up with the sorcerer.’
Another source noted: ‘Frances never had the numbers and she certainly doesn’t have them now.’
Responding to queries, the Justice Minister Fitzgerald said: ‘Fine Gael is far too busy in government to be thinking about 2018 just yet.’
She added: ‘I concentrate on one job at a time... and Justice is very, very busy every day.’