Keystone-SDA
Irish centrist leader Micheal Martin was elected Prime Minister by Parliament on Thursday. He will take the head of a coalition government dominated by the two major center-right parties, almost two months after the legislative elections.
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January 23, 2025 – 3:29 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) He was elected by parliamentarians with 95 votes in favor and 76 against. He is to be officially appointed “Taoiseach” (Prime Minister in Gaelic) by Irish President Micheal Higgins.
This vote, which was initially scheduled to take place on Wednesday, had been postponed several times following a chaotic session. Opposition parties contested the speaking time given to independent parliamentarians who support the future coalition government.
-Mr. Martin, 64, who has already been Prime Minister between 2020 and 2022 and has since been Minister of Foreign Affairs, leads the Fianna Fail party which came first in the legislative elections on November 29. This formation beat the left-wing nationalist party Sinn Fein and the other center-right party Fine Gael, after the vote in this country of 5.4 million inhabitants.
The campaign was dominated by the cost of living, the housing crisis and the issue of immigration.
Transfer of power in 2027
The outgoing Prime Minister, Simon Harris, 38, who leads Fine Gael, is to be appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the future executive. It is expected that Micheal Martin will hand over the functions of head of government during the legislature, in November 2027.
Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have alternated in power for more than a century. These two parties, historically rivals, had already formed a government coalition after the last elections in 2020, at the time with the Greens.
Failing to obtain a majority in Parliament which has 174 seats, they allied themselves this time with a group of independent parliamentarians. Sinn Fein, a left-wing nationalist party, remains the main opposition party, with 39 seats.
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