SINN Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said she wants to discuss forming a coalition government with either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil after the Republic's next election.
In the Dublin TD's clearest indication to date that her party wants a hand on the reins of power, she said she had no preference between the south's two established parties and rejected the notion that Sinn Féin was "culturally" closer to Fianna Fáil.
"I want to lead the party into government. I want to do that from the strongest possible position. I want us to discuss, debate, agree with others a programme for government,” Mrs McDonald said.
The Sinn Féin president said she expected to talk to both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael about potentially forming a government and denied suggestions that she had been “flirting” with Fine Gael in recent weeks.
Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have repeatedly ruled out any coalition deal with Sinn Féin.
Speaking to the Irish Times, the Sinn Féin leader appeared to seek to broaden her party’s appeal by making a pitch to the so-called “squeezed middle”, stressing the priorities of public services and the cost of living.
She said a programme for government drawn up by Sinn Féin and one of the big two parties would be a document that “will be ambitious, that will be different and that looks at the red line issues around the health system, people’s standard of living, people’s capacity to have just some disposable income at the end of the week or the end of the month”.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has ruled out any coalition deal with Sinn Féin, while Fine Gael has also said it will not go into government with Mrs McDonald's party.
Only last weekend, Fine Gael justice minister Charlie Flanagan categorically ruled out any coalition, citing Sinn Féin's economic policies and its association with the IRA and claiming “a leopard doesn’t change its spots”.
On Brexit, meanwhile, Mrs McDonald backed the stated intention of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney to demand substantial progress on the Irish border issue by the time of an EU summit later this month.
“If we are still in a state of drift, the responsible and proportionate thing to do is to hit not the stop button, but the pause button,” she said.
“We’ve said this publicly and privately to the taoiseach – it would be dangerous to leave these things bleed into the summer and the autumn.
"We need to bring it to a head in June, not the autumn. The taoiseach needs to do that now.”
