Ireland could face new elections when a political crisis comes to a head next week, bringing instability to Dublin just after it started flexing its muscles in Brexit negotiations.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is resisting calls by the country’s second-largest party, Fianna Fail, for his deputy to resign over a long-running police whistle-blowing scandal.
Fianna Fail has tabled a motion of no confidence in Irish Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald in parliament on Tuesday — and if it goes ahead, the minority Fine Gael government could fall.
After talks with Fianna Fail leader Michael Martin on Friday, Varadkar said they aimed to resolve the crisis.
“I don’t want there to be a general election. I don’t think Micheal Martin wants one either,” he said.
However, on Saturday, he repeated again that he believed his deputy had “done nothing wrong” in a controversy which relates to her time as minister of justice between 2014 and last year.
Fitzgerald faces questions about what she knew about the smearing of police whistle-blower Maurice McCabe, a row that has already caused the resignation of two police chiefs and a minister of justice.
The scandal also contributed to the departure of former Irish prime minister Enda Kenny, who was replaced by Varadkar in June.
The stand-off comes as Ireland seeks guarantees from London over the border with British-controlled Northern Ireland after it leaves the EU.
EU leaders — including Varadkar — are to decide at a summit next month whether enough progress has been made to move Brexit talks to the next stage.
Varadkar wants commitments that the border will remain completely open, saying that any new controls risk endangering the peace process, as well as hitting the economy on both sides.
Analysts suggest that neither of the two main Irish parties want a new election so soon after the February last year vote, when Fine Gael was forced to seek the support of Fianna Fail to govern.
However, the positions of both sides have become entrenched.
“The main players walked themselves into a corner,” said David Farrell, a politics professor at University College Dublin, adding that the situation was mostly an “accident of circumstances.”
Michael Marsh, from Trinity College Dublin, said the whistle-blowing row “certainly will not be the issue on the doorsteps, given a housing crisis, Brexit and economic recovery.”
However, he said Martin was “being pushed by some of those behind him” and perhaps did not want to lose ground to Sinn Fein, the third-largest party, which has also tabled a no-confidence motion.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including