Which party will you give your #1 preference to in the upcoming European election

The results so far are entirely predictable given the content of various discussions here on the elections and migration. T

Like another poster I won't click an Aontu button, but I will be voting for Ciaran Mullooly and Independent Ireland. Mostly down to two personalities being involved with the organisation, Michael Fitzmaurice and Eddie Punch. In the last two EU Parl elections I have voted for Luke Ming Flanagan.

My biggest concern is EU regulation over-reach threatening my family livelihood and heritage. Fitzmaurice and Punch understand this and are able operators.

Previously I voted for Ming, and despite comments on here, he has done good work on a fairer distribution of Common Agricultural Policy funds. While not solely responsible for this effort, he has made important contributions. I held my nose as regards some of his views and his relationship with wallace and daly.

Now that the rubber has met the road with the russian invasion of Ukraine, having had it out with him privately and publicly we are holding positions at odds with each other. The other major reason I won't vote for him this election is his support of EU policies such as the Nature Restoration Law. The NRL is from my pov as a farmer a land grab clothed in a cosy title. Farmers have had previous experience of "benevolent" policies like Natura2000, and I may invoke the George W. Bush fool me once quote here.

Prior to that I would have been an FG voter. However both FG & FF have enabled the Green Party to go into Government and enact their policies which massively affect my business.

There are no parties which I have voted for in the past that did not contain personalities or policies I didn't like or agree with. I have no illusions Independent Ireland will be different in that regard. But I believe in voting, so to quote a line from Master and Commander "One must always choose the lesser of two weevils".

Your political hero was only ever able to get elected in "these elections" and would have been irrelevant otherwise.

This isn't solely directed at you, but anyone only voting for 1 or 2 preferences is a mostly wasted vote. If you do not vote most or fully down the ballot, your vote is not having the full influence it could.

It could be the difference between the candidates you don't like being elected or not.

The truest form of protest vote would be to spoil it.

Independents are something of a protest vote as they are non-aligned (in theory) and at local level they can actually make a difference, more so than at national or European.

As the main opposition party, SF would make sense as they are more likely to actually get people in and, therefore, the protest vote would actually serve a purpose.

Voting for tiny extreme parties is not a smart protest; you are endorsing their policies and only encouraging them.

Anyone expecting party members to do anything other than what HQ wants are only kidding themselves, especially in the case of FF and FG. We've had a hundred years and know exactly what the story is with them both.

All this talk about politicians being out of touch with their constituents is quite an exaggeration, simply because they keep getting voted in. They are the ones your neighbours are choosing. You'd be better off trying to influence them over the politicians. To suggest politicians who have reached the quota don't represent the public is to suggest something improper is going on.

It's not a mostly wasted vote at all. I've been voting for a long time and the furthest I've ever gone down a ballot paper is 4 but for the most part I vote 1 and 2. I never have and never will vote for anyone representing FF or FG and I wouldn't vote for the array of new parties from the outwardly racist right to the 'concerned' about migration types in Fitzmaurice's vehicle so giving them nothing is influencing the outcome as they can't benefit from my vote.

You have three days to update still, can be done entirely online

https://checktheregister.ie/en-IE/

Hard to understand how someone could vote for Daley or Wallace , pair of quisling traitors to their country. 100 years ago we would be debating if they should be hung or shot

ming is a novelty act that ended up in europe after the people of galway got sick of the bag of weed off him and wanted rid ,

remember when he used to be on rte panel shows giggling away to him self stoned and saying nothing ?

you must be very sensitive if that triggered you lol its a very valid historical reference to traitors like those two actual literal convicted criminals and current putin/al assad mouth pieces

consorting with dictators and terrorists is a poor way or representing the irish people

clarify what you mean about other threads please

MNW contains Kildare, Meath, Galway City, Drogheda and Mullingar-Athlone; all of which have been known to vote for left wing non-SF candidates.

So instead of showing what he has done, which is nothing since he got elected, it’s the old “well what have they done”

The guys was voted in as a joke and now likes the free money, trying to say he has achieved anything since his election to anything is questionable IMO, you can of course disagree

But a tweet from himself isn’t proof, yesterday I tweeted I went to the moon, is it true? 😂😂

because it’s whataboutery

The question was what has Ming achieved, I think we can agree the answer is nothing

Here in Tipperary Independents will do well, We have some brilliant hard working Candidates from FG who have helped us.

The FF candidates are absolutely woeful & couldn’t care less about any problem’s i found.

I will probably be voting for independents in european and local elections.