Irish PM: Sinn Fein in power as bad as Brexit

A SINN FEIN government would be as bad as Brexit and is the next “big threat” to face Ireland, the Irish prime minister has warned.

Leo Varadkar accused the former political wing of the IRA of being eurosceptic and said electing it would risk the same chaos seen in the UK after it left the EU. “This is not the change we need. It would be change for the worse. Like Brexit, it would make us poorer, less secure and less influential in the world,” the taoiseach said.

Ireland is due to have general elections by March 2025 and Mr Varadkar is concerned that Sinn Fein will build on its strong showing in the last vote and win power. “The next big threat is not an external one, it’s an internal one,” he said on Tuesday in a speech to mark Europe Day.

Sinn Fein would make radical changes to long-standing policies on Europe and trade, he claimed, adding that the party had opposed joining the European Economic Community and the euro.

He said: “Sinn Fein has campaigned for a ‘No’ vote on every European Treaty put to the people in this state by referendum. While it has moved a lot since then, it remains a eurosceptic and eurocritical party.”

Mr Varadkar said that Sinn Fein’s manifesto committed it to withdrawing from Pesco, an EU deal pooling research funding on defence projects.

“If this happens, it will be the first time for Ireland to move away from Europe and away from integration. We would no longer be at the heart of Europe,” said Mr Varadkar, whose Fine Gael party was forced to form a coalition with Fianna Fáil after Sinn Fein’s success in the last elections in 2020.

A poll last year found that support for EU membership in Ireland was 88 per cent in favour. Irish euroscepticism has historically been strongest in Left-wing and Irish republican groups, such as Sinn Fein, which wants a united Ireland.