Irish Election Results: Fine Gael Loses Despite Narrow Lead

By Jenn Loro - 01 Mar '16 09:58AM

Recently held Irish elections saw Fine Gael taking a serious beating along with its coalition partner, the Labor Party. While the party remains the largest in parliament, it fails to acquire a significant mandate which is likely to tear the coalition government apart as smaller parties and independents made big gains.

"The option of a majority government is gone, the option of a Fine Gael/Labor government is gone ... so I need to know the results of all the parties before I decide what is the best thing to do given my duty and responsibility as taoiseach and head of government," said Irish prime minister Enda Kenny in a statement.

Sunday electoral results show Fine Gael getting 26.1% of the vote but not the 30% party leaders were hoping for to form a working coalition with Labor. Fierce rival Fianna Fail comes in second with 22.9%. Independents garnered 16.1%, Sinn Fein at 14.9%, and Labor with a dismal performance at 7.8% which fell short of the 10% the party was aiming for.

Since Labor is incapacitated to enter into a coalition, Fine Gael will be forced to find other partners to form the next government except with Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail.

"We'll be putting a mandate before the Dail (parliament) on March 10 and seeking the support of others in the first instance and there'll be a large group of TDs (members of parliament) elected outside of Fine Gael and Sinn Fein," said Fianna Fail senior leader Michael Martin as mentioned in a report by Huffington Post.

The poor showing in the elections has been attributed to people's frustration over austerity policies following the financial crisis that swept through the European Union in the last five years.

"In some ways it's not surprising that the vote was down given all that has happened in the last five years but it's a bit of a shock to find out that it's quite down so far. I think it's partly a reaction to what had to be done over the last five years," said former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes as quoted by The Guardian.