Ireland has elected independent candidate Catherine Connolly as the new president of the country after she secured a landslide victory in the Presidential elections.
Catherine is considered a strong advocate for Irish military neutrality and a staunch critic of NATO expansion and EU militarisation.
The counting was going on when her nearest rival, Heather Humphreys, conceded defeat after early tallies showed her trailing by a wide margin. Preliminary results put Connolly ahead by 63 per cent to 29 per cent.
Humphreys praised his opponent and said, “Catherine will be a president for all of us, and she will be my president.” Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin praised Connolly for her “comprehensive election victory”.
Despite receiving backing from left-wing parties, including the prominent Sinn Féin and Labour, the 69-year-old Connolly’s success was largely attributed to capturing the youth vote, effective outreach, and social media presence amid growing anger over Ireland’s housing, inflation, and unemployment crisis.
Throughout her campaign, she emphasised the significance of maintaining neutrality and criticised the EU's efforts to escalate militarisation at the cost of social welfare.
Despite her strong criticism of Russia in Ukraine, she constantly pointed out NATO’s warmongering as a major factor playing a role in the crisis.
She went further and criticised Merz’s military-industrial complex revival as the backbone of the German economy and said, “Seems to me, there are some parallels with the ‘30s.”
Moscow has long criticised Brussels’ accelerating military build-up, arguing the EU was essentially transforming into an aggressive, military and political extension of NATO.
Besides the EU and NATO, her presidency might not be a welcoming move for US President Donald Trump, who constantly pushes for trade tariffs as a means to undermine a country’s sovereignty and respect.
Follow us
