Progressive Democrat leader Michael McDowell has said the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny is "more interested in office than in convictions" and that FG cannot govern as a "solid party of the centre".
Mr McDowell today reprised his 2002 pre-general election stunt by climbing a lamp post and unveiling a campaign poster aimed at increasing his party's share of the vote next week.
PD leader Michael McDowell erects a poster in Ranelagh during the last general election campaign. Photograph: Frank Miller
Posing for photographers in Ranelagh in his Dublin South East constituency Mr McDowell unveiled a PD poster with the slogan: "Left-wing government? NO thanks!"
The PD leader said the Irish people had an "important choice" to make on general election day, May 24 th.
Noting Enda Kenny's stated policy that he would prefer a coalition with the Greens over the PDs because they share Fine Gael's aspiration to "get the Government out of office", Mr McDowell said: "This shows that Enda is more interested in office than in convictions.
"He will do anything, including weakening Fine Gael's role within an alternative government, to cement an alliance with the left and with the far left in order to get into government."
Mr McDowell said the Fine Gael leader's response, in an interview, to differences between his and the Labour Party's tax policies was that it would be "all right on the night".
"If Pat Rabbitte and Labour are the 'driving force' in government, and if Pat Rabbitte as Tánaiste is in charge of the Department of Finance, there is no chance that Fine Gael can win any of the tax arguments. Taxation policy in the Rainbow will be driven down a political one-way street by the left."
Mr McDowell added: "Fine Gael is selling itself to the electorate as a solid party of the centre. Its problem is that it cannot govern as a solid party of the centre. It can only govern with the support of Labour Party and of the Green Party."
The PD leader also accused other parties of "flip-flopping" on their taxation policies.
He said that in the lifetime of the Dail, Sinn Féin had advocated increasing the top rate of tax to 50 per cent and also increasing the rate of capital gains tax. It now favoured "none of these things".
"All of these earlier tax policies were published when they did not face the immediate judgement of the voters. They were published when it was less damaging to reveal their real instincts and their real core values.
"The left parties insist on holding the government to account for its policies over the last 10 years but dishonestly evade a discussion of their policy changes over the last 10 weeks," he said.
On the Green Party's policies, Mr McDowell said the party's plan to impose a €1 billion tax levy on the banking sector over five years. He said the measure would have a "devastating effect" on the International Financial Services Centre and on the future prospects of the 20,000 jobs there.
A similar photo opportunity just before the 2002 general election was seen as a turning point in the election campaign and as a factor in securing an increased number of seats for the PDs. The party doubled its number of seats on that occasion from four to eight, going against predictions.
On that occasion, Mr McDowell's poster was an appeal to voters not to return Fianna Fáil to office alone with an overall majority. It read: "One-party Government - NO thanks!"
Onlookers, photographers, reporters and TV cameras gathered around Mr McDowell at the Triangle in Ranelagh village in Dublin as he mounted a ladder to put up his poster.
Mr McDowell's constituency rival, Green Party chairman John Gormley arrived on the scene and the two men engaged in a verbal spat.
Mr Gormley accused the Tánaiste and PD leader of "a total lie" in his claims that the Green Party would increase corporation tax and asked him to withdraw his claims about the party's policies.
He said the PD leader's campaign had been all about "smear and negativity" and that he was "sick and tired" of those tactics.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte dismissed the Progressive Democrats leader's poster photocall as a "plea for attention".
In a question-and-answer session with ireland.com on Labour's campaign bus in Tallaght today, Mr Rabbitte said he did not accept that his party has been "compromised" in co-operating with Fine Gael to offer the people an alternative government "when Michael McDowell in his latest desperate stunt has characterised the Labour-Fine Gael Alliance for Change as a left-wing government".
"I hope he's right. McDowell's latest plea for attention would be better reflected in a slogan which says: "Me? Out of government? Don't throw me away!"
Fine Gael councillor Lucinda Creighton, who is running in the same constituency in the May 24th election said Mr McDowell's "antics" had become "jaded and are fooling nobody".