SINCE Ireland’s general election in February, the taoiseach (prime minister), Enda Kenny, has been in government but not in power. Voters angry at austerity and an uneven recovery punished the governing Fine Gael party, led by Mr Kenny, and its junior coalition partner, the Labour Party. Although Fine Gael won 50 seats and remained the largest party in parliament, Labour retained just seven seats, leaving the government well short of the 80 needed for a majority.
That seemed to dash Mr Kenny’s hopes of becoming the first Fine Gael taoiseach to win two consecutive terms since his party was founded in 1933. But on May 3rd, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the biggest opposition party, announced a three-year supply-and-confidence arrangement that will probably let Mr Kenny form a minority Fine Gael-led government by the end of the week. The alignment between the two parties is historic: their rivalry dates back to the country’s civil war in the 1920s.
Yet although the taoiseach may well himself a second term, it is Michael Martin, the leader of Fianna Fail, who is the biggest winner. In exchange for a promise to help Fine Gael get budgets...Continue reading
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