Maginness is SDLP’s euro candidate

The SDLP became the first of the big parties to select it’s candidate for next June’s European elections. At a meeting in Belfast today, Alban Maginness MLA, was nominated by the only pro european party with a seat at the Northern Ireland Executive table.

Speaking to O’Conall St after his nomination, Alban said next June’s election would be a mid term referendum on the performance of the DUP and SF. He said the people would have the opportunity to express their rejection of the two big parties behaviour in government and send a clear message that the time has come to stop the grand standing and start working on bread and butter issues.

The SDLP missed out at the  last European election by just 0.7% which makes this still an open contest particularly with a more fragmented unionist field than ever before.

Across town the Alliance has been meeting in Annual Conference. The party has offered itself up as the compromise candidate to get SF and the DUP off the hook of appointing an SDLP Justice Minister even though it is Durkan’s pick under D’Hondt. I think this is an unwise and potentially ruinous course of action for David Ford’s party. Such an outcome would also place the SDLP in a very difficult position.