{"id":426883,"date":"2024-12-02T21:55:44","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T21:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426883"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Centre-right-parties-set-to-hold-power-in-Ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Centre-right-parties-set-to-hold-power-in-Ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Centre-right parties set to hold power in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The incumbent centre-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael looked set Monday to retain power in Ireland as vote counting in the European Union member’s general election continued, with coalition talks looming.<\/p>\n

With 153 of 174 seats in the lower chamber of parliament decided since Friday’s vote, the two parties were ahead of the main opposition, the left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein.<\/p>\n

Fianna Fail, led by the experienced Micheal Martin, had the largest vote share with nearly 22 percent.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael, whose leader Simon Harris is the outgoing prime minister (taoiseach), was running second with nearly 21 percent, while Sinn Fein was in third with 19 percent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To form a majority, a party or coalition requires at least 88 seats.\u00a0So far, Fianna Fail was projected to win 40 seats, Fine Gael 33, and Sinn Fein 34.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both centre-right parties have repeatedly ruled out entering a coalition with Sinn Fein.<\/p>\n

“Overall the centre has held up in Irish politics,” Paschal Donohoe, a top Fine Gael minister in the outgoing cabinet, told reporters in Dublin after his re-election to parliament.<\/p>\n

“But we do have a lot of work to do,” he added.<\/p>\n

The centre-left opposition parties Labour and the Social Democrats are seen by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail as the most likely junior coalition parties, according to media reports.<\/p>\n

– Horse-trading –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

The Green Party was the third member of the previous coalition but its support collapsed nationwide, with all but one seat likely to be lost.<\/p>\n

At the last general election in 2020, the pro-Irish unity Sinn Fein — the former political wing of the paramilitary Irish Republican Army — was the most popular party but could not find willing coalition partners.<\/p>\n

That led to weeks of horse-trading, ending up with Fine Gael, which has been in power since 2011, agreeing a deal with Fianna Fail.<\/p>\n

During the last parliamentary term, the role of prime minister rotated\u00a0between the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael leaders.<\/p>\n

The final seat numbers, which will not be confirmed until later this week, will determine whether Harris returns as taoiseach or Martin takes the role under a similar rotation arrangement.<\/p>\n

The new parliament is due to sit for the first time on December 18, but with coalition talks likely to drag on a new government might not be formed until next year.<\/p>\n

Martin told reporters in Cork that there was “very little point” in discussing government formation until seats were finalised.<\/p>\n

“I think there’s capacity to get on,” he said, when asked if there is trust between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.<\/p>\n

Fine Gael’s Donohoe said there was “a chance” a government might still be formed this year.<\/p>\n

The three-week campaign, launched after Harris called a snap election on November 8, was dominated by rancour over housing supply and cost-of-living crises, health, public spending and the economy.<\/p>\n

“It’s all been an anti-climax as far as I’m concerned,” Michael O’Kane, a 76-year-old semi-retired engineer, told AFP in Dublin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s more of the same. The two parties who dominated the government last time are back again… but with the (fresh coalition partners) it might be a little bit less stable,” he said.<\/p>\n

bur-tym\/pdw<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Ballot papers are counted in Dublin after the general election<\/p>\n

-Ben STANSALL
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The incumbent centre-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael looked set Monday to retain power…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426883\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}