IRELAND awoke yesterday to the astonishing news . . . that Bertie Ahern is a socialist. The taoiseach, who has shared power for seven years with the country’s most right-wing party, the Progressive Democrats, declared that he was “one of the few socialists left in Irish politics”.

The announcement, which follows criticism of the government for favouring the rich, caused wisespread bemusement among fellow politicians.

“If Bertie Ahern is a socialist the moon is a balloon, Ian Paisley is a member of Opus Dei and Tony Blair never told a lie in his life,” said Eamon McCann, a writer and socialist.

“What it really shows is that Ahern recognises that being a socialist would be a popular thing to be. It is testimony to the endurance of the principles of socialism that he would make a spurious claim to the title.”

The comments also surprised Ahern’s political allies. Tom Morrisey, a Progressive Democrat senator, said: “We are a pragmatic party and Fianna Fail has accepted our policies.

I did not know the taoiseach was a socialist and I am surprised. Fianna Fail is a catch-all populist party so I suppose he could have those views. It just shows how easily people can wear a label.”

That Fianna Fail is led by a socialist leader might also give pause for thought to its allies in the European parliament, which include the extreme-right Danish People’s party and Alleanza Nazionale, a post-fascist Italian grouping.

Ahern’s declaration of socialist credentials will be seen as a ploy to stop Sinn Fein from taking the party’s working-class vote.

Fianna Fail suffered a significant defeat in local and European elections amid criticism that the party had favoured the rich. Backbench TDs accused the leadership of following a liberal economic agenda set by its Progressive Democrat partners.

Aengus O Snodaigh, a Sinn Fein TD, said: “God love him, he is confused. He might be trying to be all things to all people but the reality is we are one of the richest countries in Europe, yet the gap between rich and poor increases. That is not socialism.”

In the interview in yesterday’s Irish Times the taoiseach expounded on his personal left-wing manifesto. “ I have a very socialist view on life,” he explained. “I have it in my mind that I own the Phoenix Park, and I own the Botanic Gardens, I own the zoo. Because the state participates in these things, I am free to go in whatever the opening hours are.”

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