Irish parliament postpones vote for prime minister after rights speech | Politics News
The process of appointing a new prime minister led to widespread disorder and conflict.
Lawmakers in the Republic of Ireland have abandoned efforts to appoint a new prime minister amid bitter disputes over parliamentary procedure.
Chaotic scenes in parliament on Wednesday mean the nomination of Fianna Fail’s Micheal Martin will have to wait until at least Thursday.
The speaker of the lower house, or Dail, suspended the chamber for a fourth time after the Sinn Fein party expressed anger over plans to allow independent parliamentarians, some of whom support the incoming government, to join them on the opposition benches.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed that Fianna Fail wanted to “put their independent friends, supporters of the government, on the opposition benches and give them the same speaking rights as the opposition”.
After the Irish 29 November of choicelast week a coalition agreement was reached between the country’s two largest center-right parties and a group of independent MPs. Martin’s party won the most mandates, but not enough to rule alone.
Fianna Fail won 48 of the 174 seats in parliament, Fine Gael 38. The two parties share broadly similar center-right policies despite opposing each other during Ireland’s bloody civil war in the 1920s.
Under the coalition deal, Martin is expected to become prime minister – or taoiseach – for three years, with Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, the outgoing leader, as his deputy. The two politicians would then switch jobs until the end of their five-year mandate.
The governing agreement excludes the centre-left party Sinn Fein, which will remain in opposition despite winning 39 seats.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail refused to work with them because of their historic links with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
The new government faces enormous pressure to ease the growing number of homeless people, fueled by rising rents and property prices, and to better absorb the growing number of asylum seekers.
The cost of living – particularly the acute housing crisis in Ireland – was a dominant theme in the election campaign, and immigration has become an emotional and challenging issue in a country of 5.4 million people that has long been defined by emigration.
