After the Greens suffered a second electoral meltdown, four former party leaders with experience of being junior coalition partner give their opinion on whether it is worth the risk
Illustration by Gabriel Bruton
Who’d be a junior coalition partner? The prospect appears to be on the table for Labour, the Social Democrats or a group of independents but they will be aware of the warnings from history when it comes to playing second or third fiddle to the Civil War parties. Including what happened to the Green Party not once but twice.
The first time out, in summer 2007, the Greens had six TDs, two senior ministers, one junior minister — soon to become two — along with two senators, 17 city and county councillors and dozens of town councillors. All of that crashed over the succeeding three-and-a-half years. After leaving government in early 2011, they had just three local councillors, soon to be reduced to two.
