More than four months after the legislative elections in Ireland, the deputies designated on Saturday the leader of the centrist Fianna Fail party, Micheal Martin, the new Prime Minister. The day after the vote of members of the centrist parties Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and the Greens in favor of a government coalition.
Micheal Martin will travel to Aras an Uachtarain, the home of Irish President Michael D Higgins, after an unusually organized vote at a Dublin convention center after MEPs cast their vote. officially appoint him Prime Minister or "Taoiseach".
Fighting coronavirus first
Speaking just after his election, Micheal Martin said management of the Covid-19 would be his priority in the coming months. "2,278 people on this island have lost their lives," said the new head of government. “The fight against the virus is not over. We must continue to contain its spread. We have to be ready to face any new wave, "he continued.
After months of negotiations in the midst of a pandemic, members of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens on Friday gave the green light to a coalition agreement. These three parties have agreed to form a government without the Sinn Fein nationalists, who led the February elections.
Each turn
The coalition government plans to have a rotating leadership. Micheal Martin, 59, whose Fianna Fail party is the largest parliamentary group with 38 of the 160 seats, will be the first head of government until December 2022. He succeeds Leo Varadkar, the leader of the rival centrist Fine Gael . Leo Varadkar should however become Prime Minister after Micheal Martin, thanks to this rotating leadership.
The February elections had shaken up the political landscape in Ireland, where the two centrist parties had been in power for a century. This time, the Fine Gael and the Fianna Fail needed the support of the 12 deputies of the Green Party to reach the 80 seat threshold necessary for a parliamentary majority. With a program anchored to the left, Sinn Fein, favorable to reunification with Northern Ireland, came out on top with 24.5% of the voters. But without having presented enough candidates, it only became the second political force in Parliament with 37 seats.
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