It's Independence Day

She was a stalwart member of the Green Party, serving as an MEP for 10 years. Now, thoroughly disillusioned with the party’s performance in Government with Fianna Fail, PATRICIA McKENNA has decided to leave – and to run as an independent in the upcoming European elections.

Jason O'Toole, 11 May 2009

As political bombshells go, this is a big one. In a move that will inevitably send shockwaves through the Green Party, Patricia McKenna is quitting the party and running as an independent candidate in Dublin in the upcoming European elections, Hot Press can exclusively reveal.

The Greens have every reason to be shaken by the news. Given the level of public discontent with the current government, of which the Green Party is part, Patricia McKenna has every chance of causing an upset and recapturing the seat she first won in 1994 when she made political history by topping the poll, becoming Ireland’s first ever Green MEP. Back in 2007, McKenna contested the leadership of the Greens, won by John Gormley, and garnered a respectable 36% of votes. It is conceivable that those disillusioned Greens, who voted for McKenna’s anti-coaliti stance back then, could support her now. Either way, McKenna’s decision to run will split the Green vote and could ultimately scupper the party’s chances of regaining the European seat. McKenna held the seat for an impressive ten years, before losing in it 2004 – though she attracted 9.4% of first preferences at the time.

While McKenna has been widely perceived as an honest and straight-talking politician, she has up until now held her tongue on many issues in an effort not to upset her now ex-party colleagues. However, she has decided to use the Hot Press Interview as a forum to announce her decision to leave the Greens. What follows will inevitably make uncomfortable reading for her erstwhile party colleagues...

JASON O’TOOLE: Why are you leaving the Greens and running as an independent candidate?

PATRICIA MCKENNA: I was deluding myself, thinking that things are going to change within the Greens. I feel embarrassed about being a member of the Green Party because of what we said in the past and the promises we made, which we failed to deliver on. My relationship with the Green Party is over now – that’s it. It’s a part of my life that is gone – finished – and I have to look at where to go from here. I have over 10 years experience working as an MEP and would like to offer that to the electorate and to work on their behalf again.

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