There is a misconception that Fine Gael is a conservative party when it has in fact played a “crucial role” in advancing equality and in particular gender equality, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said. Speaking at the launch of a book on former Fine Gael female politicians, the party leader said he believes the party is often wrongly perceived as a conservative party. We are very much a party that is a centre party, perhaps a centre-right party, but a centre party nonetheless. Mr Varadkar said the conservative label has been pinned on Fine Gael partly due to “our friends on the left who don’t like us”. He said some on the left are “embarrassed” that the Fine Gael party has brought about such social progress “sometimes with them, but often without them”.

Source: The Irish Times March 09, 2021 21:58 UTC