From his poster, there’s not much to distinguish Gerry Hutch from the slew of other independent candidates hoping discontented voters will propel them into Ireland’s parliament in an election on Friday.
“We need change, and I’m your man,” it says. On the streets of Dublin, some voters agree — despite the candidate’s unusual background.
Prosecutors say Gerry “the Monk” Hutch heads an international crime group involved in robbery and drug smuggling. He was acquitted last year of murdering a gangland rival. This month he was bailed in Spain’s Canary Islands on money-laundering charges and allowed to return to Ireland to run for election.
“I’d love if he got in,” said Derek Richardson, an unemployed Dubliner unimpressed by the big-party politicians. “There’s plenty of other gangsters out there in suits.”
Around the world in this record-breaking election year, voters have decided that something in their country is broken, and punished incumbent governments.
That sentiment also ripples through the campaign in Ireland, where rival center-right parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fail took turns running the country for a century before forming a coalition administration in 2020. If some voters are turning on them, the anti-politician mood also is hitting left-of-center opposition party Sinn Fein, which not long ago appeared destined for power.
With voters set to fill all 174 seats in the Dáil, the lower house of parliament, opinion polls suggest voters’ support is split into five roughly even chunks — for Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, several smaller parties and an assortment of independents running the gamut from left-leaning to far right.
Restaurant worker Anne-Marie Kerry saw the appeal of independents — even Hutch, the alleged gangster.
“They’re all criminals anyway,” she said.
Housing crisis
The issue that comes up most on the campaign trail is housing.
Apartments and houses are expensive — prices rose by 10% in the year to August — and there are not enough to go around. A housing commission set up by the government says Ireland has a “deficit” of up to 256,000 homes. Rents have soared, and many young teachers, nurses and other key workers can’t afford a place of their own.
Eoin O’Malley, associate professor of political science at Dublin City University, said the cost of living squeeze means people in their 20s are “talking about emigration, even though there are plenty of jobs in Ireland.”
“People are feeling that they can’t settle down so they are going abroad to get their career going,” he said. “So there’s a fear among middle-class parents that ‘My children will never come back again.’”
- For more: Elrisala website and for social networking, you can follow us on Facebook
- Source of information and images “independent”“
