Should SF join EFA

[RepublicanSocialist1798]

Now that the socialist party sit with NGA/UEL perhaps to distinguish themselves Sinn Fein should move to the EFA. Furthermore, EFA would allow Sinn Fein as a credible alternative in opposition which are different from the United Left Alliance.

Nah. Most are happy staying with the EUL. It has benefits and i personally would argue for the party getting observer status in the PEL. The EUL tends to be a broad church - on one hand you have SF and the French Parti de gauche, both of whom would be a more leftist labour party, then on the other hand you have the SP and the Portuguese Bloco de Esquerda (who funnily enough had their representation halved in the last elections in Portugal) which would be the far-left radicals.

SF should get out of this country and leave us in peace.

How about you eff off out of my country and back to England.

[Passer-by]

It's not an unreasonable suggestion. The EFA is a more natural fit for Sinn Fein politically than the UEL.

A quick look on Votewatch.eu shows that B de B votes "the party line" (i.e. with her group) 88.29% of the time in this Parliament. In the last one, she voted it 88.42% of the time and ML McD did so 89.66% of the time.

Those figures are a little bit below average for the MEPs in GUE/NGL but by no means anywhere near the "bottom of the class" (as the range goes from 62.64% to 95.6% depending on the individual MEP). As such, neither B de B nor ML McD seem to have been happy enough to vote the party line except on a small-ish number of occasions which would point to "the fit" not being too unnatural.

In terms of voting the same way, the Greens/EFA are the next most close to GUE/NGL but even so they only vote the same way roughly 70% of the time. So I would suspect that are not necessarily a "more natural fit" for SF.

(As an aside, GUE/NGL also had/has other Irish MEPs in this Parliament. They were JH until he stepped down and are PM (Paul Murphy - JH' replacement). They voted/vote "the party line" on 88.77% and 98.22% of occassions respectively)