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29th Mar 2024

Wobbly Irish government sets March election date

  • Mr Cowen is not a popular figure in Ireland (Photo: The Council of the European Union)

Irish voters have been called to cast their ballot on 11 March in the first general elections since two referendums on the Lisbon Treaty and a multi-billion EU-IMF sponsored loan was handed to Dublin with tough conditions attached imposing further fiscal austerity on the country.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Thursday (20 January) set the election date for 11 March, vowing to stay in power until the austerity budget, required under the international loan, is passed.

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"I believe it is important in the weeks ahead that the government gives legislative effect to the budget through the enactment of the Finance Bill and other related bills which benefit the people. There's nothing more important than doing precisely that," Mr Cowen said.

The prime minister was forced to re-assign six portfolios to existing ministers, rather than appoint new faces, amid a series of resignations in the past few days.

Foreign minister Micheal Martin resigned Tuesday night after losing his challenge to Mr Cowen's leadership of the ruling Fianna Fail party, his move being followed by five colleagues in charge of health, justice, defense, transport and enterprise. This comes on top of the withdrawal from government of a junior coalition partner, the Green Party, in November 2010, lambasting Mr Cowen for "betraying" the Irish people by agreeing to the international bailout.

Meanwhile, another minister, Conor Lenihan, in charge of science and technology, on Thursday afternoon called on Mr Cowen to resign - a sign that the turmoil within the Fianna Fail party is far from over.

"It's a shambles," Enda Kenny, leader of the largest opposition party, Fine Gael, said in an interview with broadcaster RTE. "The last days of a desperate government."

Fine Gael is a pro-EU centre-right party, part of the European People's Party and is the frontrunner in polls ahead of the general elections, at 35 percent, according to a poll carried out by Red C this month. Support for Mr Cowen's party, a member of the European Liberals and in power since 1997, has meanwhile dropped to 14 percent.

Voters are particularly disgruntled with the state of the economy, with the financial system run into the ground despite massive state capital injections into the country's biggest banks. This contributed to a ballooning of Ireland's budgetary deficit in 2010, forcing it to seek an €85 billion lifeline from the EU and the IMF.

Perceptions that Mr Cowen had performed badly in safeguarding Ireland's interests came to the forefront in 2009, when, under pressure from other EU governments, he agreed to a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty after a first plebiscite rejected the EU document only a year earlier.

Irish goverment teetering as Greens pull plug on coalition

Ireland's Green Party, the junior partner in the country's governing coalition with centre-right Fianna Fail, has announced it is to pull the plug on the alliance, calling on the government to announce elections in January. The party will however stay on until passage of 2011 budget and four-year austerity budget.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Difficult talks ahead on financing new EU defence spending

With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of ending any time soon, EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (21 and 22 March) to discuss how to boost the defence capabilities of Ukraine and of the bloc itself.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

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