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DUBLIN – As an academic, poet, intellectual, committed socialist, and famous speaker for his opposition to breaks, Irish President Michael D. Higgins is far from your usual candidate.
While the vote was closed in the Irish presidential election last night, he was easily able to win a second term as Ireland's head of state, with a number of votes twice as high as the five other candidates combined.
Irish voters have also been asked to decide whether or not to abolish a constitutional clause banning blasphemy. Having recently approved much more confrontational measures for same-sex marriage and same-sex abortion, they were expected to approve the proposal by far.
Although no one has ever been prosecuted for blasphemy in modern Ireland, rights groups such as Amnesty International say governments like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have invoked the ban to defend their own regimes. repressive in various international forums.
In the run-up to the vote, even the Catholic Church agreed that the clause was "largely obsolete."
It may not have been a problem without a television appearance in 2015 by British comedian Stephen Fry.
Asked what he would say to God in the afterlife, Mr. Fry replied, "Why should I respect a capricious, petty and stupid God, who creates a world so full of life? injustice and suffering? "
This resulted in both a police investigation that was eventually abandoned and a discussion on the removal of the constitutional clause.
Although the official results are not known until Saturday, in the polls, the blasphemy measure was supported by about half of the voters, while the president, aged 77, could choose between 68 and 69% of potential voters .
Although personally popular, Mr. Higgins also enjoys a huge benefit from his status as a licensee.
The Irish presidency is largely a figurehead, with constitutional powers rarely used to break parliamentary dead ends and subject new laws to more scrutiny. Once elected, an Irish president is therefore traditionally considered to be above normal politics.
"Most presidents are leaving their posts with approval figures that governments can only dream of," said Theresa Reidy, a lecturer in political science at University College Cork.
Jane Suiter, a lecturer in communications at Dublin City University, said Higgins' intellectualism had seduced many Irish voters who might not share it.
"It allows us to project the best image of ourselves on the world stage," said Ms. Suiter. "We can have a president and a poet and an intellectual and that makes us feel good. And at the same time, he does not have the power to raise our taxes. This is of no consequence.
"I think young people like the idea that it's a little anti-establishment," she continued. "That's the same reason they like Jeremy Corbyn in the UK or Bernie Sanders in America – the kind of cool older person who speaks up for them and does not care so much about middle-aged people on which policy is focused. "
President Higgins' campaign was facilitated by the fact that no major national or public figure chose to run against him.
Sinn Fein, formerly the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, was the only major party to present his candidate, Liadh ni Riada, daughter of the late composer Sean O Riada.
She was 9% in the latest poll, three points down from the second, Sean Gallagher, one of three "investors" in the widely broadcast reality show "Dragon's Den" to run for election.
In 2011, Gallagher was about to make the leap from a reality show interpreter to a head of state, five years before President Trump, but had lost to President Higgins.
Dr. Suiter said the number of reality TV candidates was a clear reflection of Trump's success.
She is concerned by reports that voters with racist or far-right views may be attracted to one of them, Mr. Peter Casey, who has provoked controversy over last week with remarks widely perceived as derogatory statements about the Irish people, a recognized ethnic minority. .
Mr. Casey denied being racist.
"There are racists and xenophobes here like nowhere else, but they have never had political expression," Dr. Suiter said. "If Casey were to get a lot of support after what he said, it might encourage others to engage in this path."
