Nearly all of the minority candidates running for Ireland’s centrist Fine Gael party have been targeted by threats and racist abuse, the party has said, in what it described as a “very serious low” in the political discourse before local and European elections.
“This is appalling and must be called out for what it is – wrong, sexist and racist,” Damien English, the party’s director of elections, said in a recent statement. Sixteen of the party’s 339 candidates for upcoming elections have a migrant background.
