The Irish coalition looks poised for re-election despite a powerful Sinn Fein show via Reuters
By Graham Fahy, Padraic Halpin and Conor Humphries
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s opposition party, Sinn Fein, was looking to win a majority in the general election by a narrow margin on Friday, but its two main centre-right rivals may have enough seats to rule without it, a poll showed.
Exit polls put left-wing Sinn Fein on 21.1%, Prime Minister Simon Harris’ centre-right Fine Gael on 21.0% and like-minded coalition partner Fianna Fail on 19.5%.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail pledged before the election to seek to form a coalition without Sinn Fein, as they did after the 2020 general election when Sinn Fein also narrowly won the popular vote.
“There is a three-way race now to see who will be the biggest party,” Finance Minister Jack Chambers of Fianna Fail told national broadcaster RTE, adding that the party’s stance on Sinn Fein had not changed.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, former rivals, who between them have led every government since the establishment of the state almost a century ago, can not reach the majority and the other small group, said Gail McElroy, Professor of Political Science in the United States. Trinity College Dublin.
Both parties are currently in power with the Greens.
Opinion polls suggested the three main parties were neck and neck ahead of the vote and that Ireland was headed for a similar result to the last election in 2020.
Harris called the election after a 10.5 billion euro ($11 billion) handout budget that began pouring money into voters’ pockets during the campaign, largely made possible by billions of euros in foreign tax revenue.
But his Fine Gael party’s misguided campaign, which culminated last weekend with a viral clip of Harris walking away from a frustrated care worker, has cost them their pre-election lead.
Government parties also faced great frustration during the campaign over their inability to transform Europe’s healthiest public finances into better public services.
All parties have implemented austerity measures to try to fix the problems, but they are focused on the continued growth of corporate taxes paid mainly by large US firms. That could be threatened by US President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to lower US corporate tax rates and impose tariffs on trade.
Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, came forward to lead the next government last year but received support from 30-35%, due to anger among its liberal immigrant base. policies.
“If you look at where we were coming from in the local elections, it’s a very good result,” Sinn Fein Foreign Office spokesman Matt Carthy told RTE, referring to the council elections in May where Sinn Fein fell to 12%.
“We went into this election saying we want to be part of the next government, we want that government not to include Fine Gael or Fianna Fail but we will negotiate with all parties and that remains our vision,” he said.
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