Ireland was scheduled to vote yesterday in a parliamentary election that could see it become the latest eurozone nation to face political instability, as anger against hardship and austerity weakens the outgoing government.
Polls indicate that the coalition led by Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s Fine Gael might struggle to form a majority for a second term due to a potential collapse in support for junior partners Labour, whose center-left base has been alienated by austerity cuts.
Under the coalition, Ireland became the eurozone’s champion of economic growth after exiting in 2013 a bailout program brought in following a deep financial crisis, but there is anger over tax increases and cuts to services, with many voters pointing to increased homelessness and poverty and asking: “What recovery?”
“The last time, I voted for them, but never again,” said Silvia Doran, 72, whose husband’s public service pension was targeted for cuts following the financial crisis.
“They took some money off our pension three times, then they gave us a house tax and then a water tax, how can we pay that out of the pension?” she said.
Unlike in other eurozone nations, where opposition to austerity coalesced around insurgent parties like Spain’s Podemos or Syriza in Greece, the vote in Ireland has splintered.
Those expected to increase their numbers in Dail Eireann, the lower house of parliament, are a group of independent politicians not affiliated to parties, new group the Anti Austerity Alliance/People Before Profit and left-wing republican party Sinn Fein.
“I think after the election, what we will see is potentially a hung Dail,” Red C polling chief Richard Colwell said.
“It’s looking increasingly unlikely that Fine Gael and Labour are going to be able to form a government on their own,” he added.
Polling stations open at 7am with first indications of the result expected as counting begins today, a process that could continue all weekend.
Possible post-election scenarios include Kenny cobbling together a coalition with a mix of independents and small parties, a re-run of the election or a historic “grand coalition” between his Fine Gael party and old rivals Fianna Fail — bitter adversaries since Ireland’s 1920s civil war.
Support for Fianna Fail, the party most associated with Ireland’s brutal economic crash, has recovered slightly since it was punished at the last poll in 2011, though Kenny has rejected the idea of doing a deal with its leader Micheal Martin.
Paul Murphy, a socialist candidate for the Anti-Austerity Alliance in the Dublin South-West constituency where traditional party politicians are facing a tough fight against the insurgent left, said austerity had fired political passions.
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