Proposals for a directly elected mayor of Dublin are on ice after their supporters grew nervous that city-wide elections would bolster populist insurgency, according to the Irish Sunday Times. Specifically, the elites took fright from the idea that the politically ambitious former mixed martial artist Conor McGregor could win.
McGregor’s shambolic public persona may ultimately put off Irish voters, who are already staying away at the polls, but Dublin officials are citing him as a possible beneficiary of people voting the ‘wrong’ way. Specifically, the fighter’s outspoken views on migration are treated as a reason to keep him away from the populace (who might even share some of those views). Government number two Tánaiste Simon Harris says McGregor represents “the very worst of toxic masculinity.”
This is a far cry from 2022, when the government-funded Dublin Citizens’ Assembly ruled that the city needed a directly elected mayor. Now the authorities have gone cold on the idea, in case the ‘wrong’ candidate gets elected. Regardless, Europe’s populist revolt will continue.
