Irish General Election to Be Called Shortly, Varadkar Signals
Irish General Election to Be Called Shortly, Varadkar Signals
(Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar indicated a general election will be held shortly, saying he’s chosen a date, though opting not to reveal it yet.
Varadkar said ideally voters would go to the polls in the summer, but “circumstances have changed. We have a deal on Brexit, in many ways that was the big job for this government,” he said in an interview with broadcaster RTE on Sunday in Dublin. “We have the institutions up and running in Northern Ireland.”
The Irish leader said he’ll brief colleagues and complete some “unfinished business” before publicly firing the gun on what’s likely to be a testy campaign, with Varadkar expected to highlight his role in winning a Brexit withdrawal deal which keeps the Irish border invisible after the U.K. exits the European Union.
Against that, he’ll face criticism over a housing crisis and floundering health care system. While unemployment has dropped, the recovery is widely seen as uneven and too focused on Dublin.
The government agreed a confidence and supply arrangement with Fianna Fail in 2016 and extended it to provide stable government during Brexit talks. While Varadkar took over from Enda Kenny as prime minister in 2017, he has yet to lead his party in a general election campaign.
His Fine Gael party lost all four by-elections held in November.
Ireland usually elects coalition or minority administrations. Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are at 30% and 24% respectively according to a Red C Research/Sunday Business Post opinion poll carried out in November. The next biggest party, Sinn Fein, is at 11%.
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Dara Doyle
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