Longford European election candidate wants to bring about change for betterment of people

Last Saturday nominations closed for those looking to run in next month’s European Parliament elections.

On June 7 the people of Longford, along with the 14 other counties in the constituency, will be asked to choose five MEPs to represent them in the European Parliament for the next five years.

It's a packed field with a record 27 candidates on the Midlands North West ballot paper.

Three Longford candidates will have their name and picture on the ballot sheet; Stephen Garland (Independent), Ciaran Mullooly (Independent Ireland) and James Reynolds (National Party).

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The Midlands North West constituency has an additional seat this time round and, as Fine Gael's Colm Markey has indicated he won't be seeking re-election, there will be two new MEPs upon completion of the count.

Sitting MEPs Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Sinn Féin’s Chris McManus, and Maria Walsh know this will be a hard fight to book tickets back to Strasbourg.

One of the Longford hopefuls looking for a seat on that plane is James Reynolds. Mr Reynolds officially launched his campaign for the European parliamentary elections last week in Athlone.

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The Longford farmer has been leader of the National Party since last year. At the Athlone launch he outlined a programme based around two key objectives; to save rural Ireland and end mass immigration.

The anti-immigrant platform is one that has a lot of competition. Jostling for position on that are Irish Freedom Party leader Hermann Kelly, the National Party leader Mr Reynolds replaced, Justin Barrett, former presidential candidate and Dragon's Den participant Peter Casey, and former Irish Times journalist John Waters.

“It's going well so far,” Mr Reynolds said of the progress of his campaign, “Last weekend I was in Sligo, at the ploughing. I met a few of the Longford competitors, the Stewards from Killashee and the Monaghans from Edgeworthstown, it was a successful event.”

The National Party leader has a clear target for the voters he wants to represent: “I've been targeting the agriculture sector, the rural and farming vote. I've canvassed in Galway, Mayo and parts of Roscommon and Westmeath,” he said.

Mr Reynolds identifies a shift in public opinion, and believes he's well placed to pick up votes for his policies: “Four years ago, when you mention immigration, people didn't listen, now they agree with you. It's now recognised as top of the political agenda. Even for parties, it's a different view to my own,” he said.

His canvass to convince voters to elect him as an MEP will cover a constituency that spans 13 counties with a population of 1,831,741. All of the candidates have their work cut out for them.

The National Party candidate believes he's in a good position: “It's a very tough ask, but you could say that half of those 27 candidates are in the 'also ran' category. They're not doing well at all, and some haven't even started canvassing.

“The Farmer's Journal wrote the article that narrowed it down to the frontrunners. They include me in those frontrunners, in relation to the farming vote, based on my performance at the two IFA debates,” he says.

“After the debates in Claremorris and Mullingar, I had people coming up to me taking interest. I had card-carrying members of the Fine Gael party in Mayo, so disillusioned with Maria Walsh they took leaflets from me to distribute to their friends,” he tells.

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In the 2020 General election Mr Reynolds was eliminated after the sixth count having secured 983 first preference votes. The National Party leader believes making a bid to represent Irish people in Brussels is more important than getting elected to a local authority seat: “This isn't about James Reynolds. I don't want to become a career politician.

“If I end up being elected an MEP, that's because it worked out that way, because the people decided to support and latch on to my vision. I want to be an MEP, and before that, I wanted to be a TD, because I wanted to be in a position to actually bring about change for the betterment of the people of Longford, the betterment of the people of my country.”

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Mr Reynolds says the shift in public opinion has brought National Party policy into the mainstream: “Politics has changed so much in the last two years. If you go back to the general election four years ago, when I brought up the issue of immigration on doorsteps, people didn't see it as a major issue. They do now.”

Midlands North West election candidate James Reynolds spoke to the Leader on Monday, May 13 about his canvassing for the European Elections on Friday June 7.