2009 European Parliament Election
In May 2009, McKenna announced her intention to run as an independent candidate at the 2009 European Parliament election in Dublin - attacking her party colleagues as "nothing but hypocrites" due to their role in the coalition government, and that she would be "embarrassed to stand as their candidate".
Reactions by former party colleagues to McKenna's departure from the Green Party were mixed. According to Green Party senator Déirdre de Búrca, "The pity about Patricia McKenna's move is that she did not do it at least a year ago and spare herself and her party colleagues a lot of time-wasting and strife. It has been increasingly clear that she does not share the same views on many issues with Green Party members."
McKenna was not elected at the 2009 European Parliament election. She received 17,521 first preference votes (4.3%). She was eliminated at the fifth count, after her former party colleague Déirdre de Búrca, who was eliminated at the third count.
In June 2010 she attended meetings with a number of former Green Party members to facilitate the formation of a new political party, Fís Nua.
Read more about this topic: Patricia McKenna
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