Don’t bother yourself with the ifs, buts and maybes of today’s Sunday newspapers, RTÉ.ie has just confirmed that Michael McDowell will be the next leader of the Progressive Democrats and there will be no party vote needed to confirm this.
Tom Parlon will become party President, something McDowell was apparently aprehensive to offer while Liz O’Donnell will become Deputy Leader.
While the victor is certain to divide opinion the fact that the party avoided a bloody contest is certainly of benefit to them; now the question is what McDowell will do next.
It may be fair to think that he will push the party to the right in an attempt to take support from immigrant-scepticism in the country at the moment. His ID card for non-nationals and idea of deporting immigrant criminals have been quite well recieved so far and the uneducated fears over further EU enlargement are sure to increase in the coming months.
Not to mention that the Irish political scene is currently lacking a party on the right with centre-right parties being the closest available.