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Translated by: Shkëlzen Dema
- March 21 2025 12: 12
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Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter Conor McGregor will run for president of Ireland during the elections to be held in November this year.
The controversial former fighter announced his candidacy on Thursday with anti-immigration stances.
McGregor, who has recently emerged as a figurehead for the far-right in Ireland, has declared in the media that he will run for president to oppose a new European Union migration pact that aims to distribute the burden of asylum seekers equally across the bloc. CNN reported.
He has declared that if elected president he will hold a referendum on this EU pact. "Although I strongly oppose this pact, it is not my solution or the government's, but the people of Ireland's! Always," he wrote.
"Who else would stand up to the government to oppose this initiative? Any candidate they try to install will not resist, I will," he wrote in a post on his Instagram account, where he has 46 million followers.
The post came days after McGregor, 36, appeared at the White House with US President Donald Trump on St Patrick's Day, where he became the US president's latest European supporter in promoting his anti-immigration stance.
Irish leader Micheal Martin said McGregor's comments "do not reflect the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, or the attitudes of the people of Ireland."
McGregor was previously the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Born in Dublin, McGregor was the first fighter to hold two UFC belts at the same time. According to Forbes, he was the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2021.
