So, How’s That Austerity Working Out?
Update from the BBC: Ireland’s Green Party quits government of Brian Cowen. This will probably require the election being moved forward to February.
The BBC reports that Irish PM Brian Cowen steps down as Fianna Fail leader
Irish PM Brian Cowen has said he is stepping down as leader of the ruling Fianna Fail party but will continue to run the government until the general election on 11 March.
Mr Cowen said the focus of the election should be policy and not personality.
In a week of political crises, Mr Cowen first survived a party leadership vote but was forced to call the election after a bungled cabinet reshuffle.
The BBC is being kind. The “bungled cabinet reshuffle” was half dozen ministers quitting their jobs.
Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent for the Guardian reports that Fianna Fáil braced for election defeat
Fianna Fáil will lose more than half of its 71 seats in the Dáil, party advisers warned today, as its members prepare for a general election defeat.
The party, which has dominated Irish politics for much of the Republic’s history, will be lucky to return to the Irish parliament with 30 seats, said a source in Fianna Fáil, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
History will also be made on the other side of the Republic’s political divide, with a potential Fine Gael/Labour party alternative government gaining a majority of at least 30 seats – the highest for any rival coalition since the state was founded in 1921.
The Irish voters are angry. The government leapt in and guaranteed the bad paper that Irish banks had sold, and are now cutting everything they can find to pay back a loan they took out to cover the banks’ debts.
It’s like being forced to pay someone else’s bar tab, and then told you have to have the miscreant’s hangover too – you had none of the fun but must be responsible for all of the pain.
If I were a Fianna Fáil strategist, I would be working like hell to make this election about the personality of Brian Cowen, rather than the policies of the party.
2 comments
Fianna Failure are in for an epic drubbing at the polls. The last poll I saw indicated that FF might not even be the main opposition (that going to Sinn Fein). Whether they face a Kim Campbell size defeat or just a John Major one the one certainty is that the Dail’s composition will shift to the left.
Sadly I am not sure that there is much that any new Government can do to improve things. The terms of the recent bail out preclude that.
There will certainly be calls to re-negotiate those terms, Jams, and a lot of resentment directed at the French and German banks who are benefiting from it. Fianna Fáil is certainly going to be in the wilderness of “small gods” for an extended period.