MEP Clare Daly claims she and fellow independent MEP Mick Wallace have been unfairly represented by the “established media” because of their stance on the war on Ukraine and wider issues in the bloc.
peaking to The Indo-daily, Ms Daly said she has never been a “Putin puppet” and has said from the start that Russia is responsible for the war.
Ukraine’s Secret Service recently included former Dublin TD Ms Daly on a list of 72 public figures they say are “promoting stories consistent with Russian propaganda”.
While Ms Daly said she has “outrightly condemned Russia for starting this war”, she also argued that what she calls “the role of the US and NATO” in the conflict “cannot be ignored”.
And she reaffirmed her stance that sanctions are the wrong course of action.
“I’ve been an anti-war activist all my life, but what I’ve said is that sanctions don’t help and that arming, putting weapons into conflict, doesn’t defend people, it basically prolongs the war; meaning more of them get killed.
“I think unfortunately I have been vindicated in that position because we see more weapons coming in, more sanctions being imposed and the result of that is more and more Ukrainians dying, being displaced. That’s the last thing I want to do.” see,” she said.
“Some of our views have been mischievously distorted by some political opponents, as well as deliberately, I think, by sections of the mainstream media.
“To turn them into something else, if you will, my opposition to sanctions is somehow ‘oh, I’m soft on Russia and I don’t want Russia to be damaged or anything’, there’s no such thing.
“I’m against sanctions because they don’t work, because they punish ordinary people. I mean look at the impact of the sanctions, Russia is making more money than ever. It can’t spend the money because of the sanctions, but it’s on billions and billions and billions.
“We have been accused of being Putin puppets and all this, but no one has ever been able to produce a single word that shows I support Putin. He is a right-wing neoliberal nationalist and I have nothing to do with them now or ever.”
Ms Daly said she knows there are people who don’t support her opinion, who “will not” vote for her anymore and that she’s been getting some “vitriolic” emails lately, but “similarly” she said she’s a lot of receive emails from supporters.
She also denied ever saying that Ukraine should join the EU, but said the idea of quickly tracking the country’s membership is unworkable.
She further argued that there are questions to be answered about “corrupt” practices in Ukraine.
“I absolutely never said that, it is entirely a matter for the Ukrainian people whether they want to join the European Union or not.
“What we said was that this idea of accelerating Ukrainian membership is not going to happen, it’s a pipe dream, it’s bullshit and everyone knows it,” she said.
“We also have to be careful with this because the European Court of Auditors’ own body said it cannot explain the billions that have gone to Ukraine because of the level of corruption in that society, and so on, that European taxpayers’ money could go there. not properly accounted for.”
As for placement on Ukraine’s security waiting list, she described the move as “sinister” and said it was undemocratic.
“Because the hallmark of democratic society is the right to disagree, and that’s how people learn and develop,” she said.
MEPs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly. Pic Collins Courts.
Discussing her political connections with Mick Wallace, MEP Daly said they “have very similar views” and that their different backgrounds are “a good combination”.
She argued that the “good work” they do is often not mentioned by the Irish media and said there is a “disconnect” between people in Europe and the European institutions, which is “magnified in Ireland”.
Sinn Féin has been at the top of opinion polls for over a year now and Ms Daly, it is a “real sign that people have had enough of the old guard” and that elections must be held.
“[Successive governments have] failed to address the main problems faced by ordinary people in terms of housing, the health crisis, the cost of living and everything else. So people want change and they deserve it and the sooner the better and I think Sinn Féin deserves its chance to be there and show it can do something different because that’s what people call it,” she added.