Irish President Michael D. Higgins officially dissolved the country’s parliament on Friday, kicking off a three-week campaign ahead of the November 29 general election. TASR informs about it based on the AFP report.
The expected winner of the election is the centre-right Fine Gael political party of Prime Minister Simon Harris, which would thus secure a place in the government for the fourth time in a row. In the outgoing parliament, she shared power with another center-right party, Fianna Fáil, with leaders of both parties alternating the role of prime minister. The smaller Green Party was also part of the government coalition.
However, in the country’s last election in 2020, Fine Gael fell to third place behind Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, which narrowly won the largest number of seats. All three parties secured more than 20 percent of the vote each.
The November vote will be dominated by domestic pressure to solve the housing crisis or growing opposition to migration, for which there have been several violent riots in the country in recent years.
In an appearance in Dublin on Friday, Harris told reporters that “now is the right time” to ask the Irish people to give his party a new mandate. He also said that Ireland is a “great democracy” and voters have a “right to good government and hard work”.
In April, the current prime minister replaced Leo Varadkar, who resigned in March after an internal political crisis. A few months later, he saw an increase in support for the government and a collapse of the opposition in the European and municipal elections, writes AFP. Harris claimed his government had made “great progress” as he thanked his coalition partners – Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald has described the upcoming general election as a once-in-a-lifetime event, as it could bring Ireland a government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael for the first time in 100 years.
“Those who have held the reins of power for a century think that this election is a foregone conclusion, that everything will go their way again and that they will simply go back to government buildings,” McDonald said. “But the Irish people will have something to say about it because the need for change has never been more urgent. We simply cannot afford another five years of failed government.” added.
