London – At a time when European voters’ tendencies are remarkably skewed toward voting for right-wing populist parties, the Irish have sided with a presidential candidate who is not only affiliated with the far-left movement, but also a politician who rebels against the traditional political system that has been making public policies in the country for decades.
With a large margin of victory, former lawyer Catherine Connolly was able to present an inspiring example of an independent representative who escaped the calculations of party controls and jumped from her position on the margins of parliamentary work without strong party support, to become one of the most prominent faces who will establish political life in Ireland during the next seven years.
Connolly is preparing to become the country’s tenth president after obtaining 67% of the voters’ votes, after the minister in the previous government, Heather Humphreys from the center-right Fine Gael party, admitted defeat in the elections after obtaining 29% of the total votes, making Connolly the third woman in the country’s history to assume the presidency.
Independent left-wing candidate Katherine Connolly won the presidential election in #Irelandwinning more than 63% of the votes pic.twitter.com/H9H1Grr4aS
– Al Jazeera Channel (@AJArabic) October 26, 2025
Confusion
The election result has confounded the country’s political class, as it is widely seen as an unexpected breakthrough in the structure of the political establishment that has been stable for decades, raising concerns from critics that the sharp stances of Connolly, who does not hesitate to clash with Dublin’s Western allies, could affect the country’s foreign relations.
Although the presidency remains ceremonial and symbolic and during which successive presidents have maintained calm positions, the British newspaper The Guardian believes that Connolly’s election represents an angry message from voters directed at the political class and the government affiliated with the center-right.
On the other hand, the European newspaper Politico attacked Connolly’s declared tendencies, and warned in an article of “the rise of a pro-dictatorship politician in Russia.”
Since the start of the war on the Gaza Strip, Connolly did not hesitate to express her unconditional support for the Palestinians and her fierce criticism of Israeli policies against them, which made her statements denouncing international positions towards the Palestinian issue, in a country like Ireland where solidarity with Palestine is widely popular, also gained her the support of a wide segment of voters.
But the sharpness of its unequivocally declared tone against Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip, and what it sees as American and European bias towards Tel Aviv, arouses the ire of its critics and some of the traditional Irish politicians, who consider these positions to lead to hardening that may end in a possible clash with the Western allies.
In previous statements to the BBC, Connolly insists that Israeli violations are not just a reaction to the events of October 7, 2023, but go back decades and to systematic Israeli policies against the Palestinians.
A strong supporter of Palestine
The new Irish president’s criticisms went so far as to object to the European position that insists on excluding the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) from any role in the independent Palestinian state after the decision of Britain and a number of Western countries to recognize it last month, which sparked criticism against her from current Prime Minister Michel Martin.
In a striking and frank position, Connolly believes that her country, which cannot alleviate the weight of its colonial history, has difficulty dictating to other peoples under colonialism the way in which they manage their affairs.
James Giles, a British political activist and independent member of one of the British municipal councils, confirms that the election of an independent Irish president who declares her explicit support for the Palestinian cause without adhering to the usual controls of European foreign policies, is consistent with a remarkable shift in the mood of the European voter, whose electoral orientation has become determined by the Palestinian issue and who have become more inclined to search for a political alternative away from Crisis party dualities.
Independent left-wing candidate Katherine Connolly wins the presidential election in #Ireland..So who is Catherine Connolly?#Al Jazeera_Digital pic.twitter.com/q7mDzpCmRc
– Al Jazeera Channel (@AJArabic) October 26, 2025
In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Giles points out that the rise of political figures biased towards the rights of the Palestinian people in the European arena who are able to reach decision-making circles is disturbing the traditional balance of power and putting real pressure on foreign policy makers, especially when it comes to the suffering of the Palestinian people and their rights.
Following the announcement of victory, the new president confirmed her intention to rebuild a “new Irish republic” that supports the rights of marginalized people and protects diversity and Irish identity at the same time.
However, in press statements, the leader of the Irish Labor Union, Jim Allister, quickly attacked Connolly’s election, warning that she represented “a factor inciting division and a source of embarrassment to the country at the international level,” due to what he described as her extremist political tendencies and her tendency to express confrontational opinions against Western allies.
Urgent | Irish Foreign Minister: It is time to denounce what is happening in… #Gaza It ended and the European Union gave Israel time, but it did nothing pic.twitter.com/wRWIHwnucd
– Al Jazeera Egypt (@AJA_Egypt) August 29, 2025
Fierce opposition
While Connolly does not hide her reservations about the policies of the European Union and accuses it of losing a moral compass, her opponents warn that her political orientations may cause political harm to Dublin’s relations with the US administration and European neighbors, at a time when Ireland is one of the countries most closely associated with the idea of union and the doctrine based on political unity.
Catherine Connolly is considered one of the most prominent and fierce opponents in the Irish Parliament of her country’s intention to increase military spending, which is expected to exceed $1.5 billion by 2028, in the context of the European push to enhance defense independence from the American ally, and President Donald Trump’s pressure on them to increase their military spending.
During her election campaign, she did not find any embarrassment in expressing her refusal to meet with Trump, while also directing sharp criticism at NATO’s policies regarding the Ukrainian war.
After announcing her election victory, Connolly told her supporters that she insisted on building Irish politics on neutrality and protecting it from Western militaristic policies in which the European Union is involved, and instead confronting what she described as the existential threat posed by climate change.
In this context, David Heng, an expert in British trade policies at the European Center for Political Economy, believes that the Irish economy’s dependence on American companies and attracting foreign investments makes it difficult for any president to adopt a confrontational position with the US administration, which is essentially seeking to reduce the volume of those investments in the context of its protectionist policies.
Heng adds – in his speech to Al Jazeera Net – that the economic transformation that Ireland has witnessed is primarily linked to support for the European Union, especially after Britain’s exit from the Union, which continues to place Dublin at the heart of its modern economic and technological projects and link them in an integrated manner to its structures, which complicates the task of anyone wishing to take a distance from it.