People Before Profit claims an ‘elite’ could use gardaí to move against any elected left-wing government

People Before Profit has claimed a “wealthy” elite could deploy gardaí and the Defence Forces against a left-wing government after the next election.

In an incendiary document being published today, the four People Before Profit TDs and its one MLA have attacked Sinn Féin – just a day after calling on Mary Lou McDonald’s party, the Social Democrats, and left-wing Independent TDs to enter talks on forming a left-wing government without Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael after the next election.

While pledging to back Ms McDonald in a Dáil vote for Taoiseach – provided she rules out governing with the two Civil War parties – PBP says that “if Sinn Féin is adopting a moderate left strategy now, the chances are that it will succumb to capitalist pressure when in government.”

PBP criticised Sinn Féin’s economic and social policies in the North and states: “Sinn Féin’s response is to sit tight and avoid taking overly radical stances. It presents itself as a party of government in waiting – and, while promising change, wants to reassure that it will not be too radical.”

The document, entitled ‘The case for a left-wing government: Getting rid of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael’, is primarily an attack on the two Civil War parties, and is being sold online for €3.

Examining the question of whether a left-wing government could succeed, PBP claims that “the rich” will use “their control over the media to turn a population against a left government”.

“Even the prospect of a Sinn Féin-led government has led to a barrage of propaganda from the Irish Independent, the Irish Times and RTÉ against the party. It will not even stop there,” the document states.

The party goes on to claim that “the wealthy” will use “far-right and fascist gangs who use a spurious radical rhetoric to divert anger on to social scapegoats such as migrants, gay, or trans people” and that in the final analysis, “they will deploy the police and the Army to move against elected left-wing governments.”

It cites the example of Salvador Allende, the Marxist president of Chile, who was ousted in a US-backed coup in the 1970s.

It states, without evidence, that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are “using the war in Ukraine to kill off neutrality and are aiming to bring the country into Nato” and claims the current government aims to “move to a referendum to finally bury neutrality”.

The document says that “many” Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael TDs and senators are landlords, citing Simon Coveney who owns “multiple properties”. The Enterprise Minister’s latest declaration on the Dáil register of interests lists no properties in his name that he rents out.

The document claims that an ideology of “neoliberalism” is reflected in the two parties’ policies on health, the climate crisis, and taxation. The party claims they have turned Ireland into a tax haven and “even children know that the country offers a 12.5pc rate of tax to global corporations”.

The document also claims “the bishops moved in lockstep with Fianna Fáil and the party had deep roots in sections of the GAA, primary school teachers and, strangely, groupings like Dublin taxi drivers.”

It hits out at “po-faced politicians and RTÉ” who “harried the women’s soccer team to make apologies for singing ‘Up the Ra’”.

PBP states that there will be “fear mixed with horror” in the Shelbourne Hotel and Portmarnock Golf Club if a left-wing party or Sinn Féin form the next government – but “celebration and delight” in Darndale and Crumlin. It says there will be “a feeling that against all the snobs and ‘experts’, they have elected THEIR government and that real change is coming”.