Sinn Fein Locked Out of Power for Now With Coalition Talks Ahead

(Bloomberg) -- Ireland’s leaders are set to intensify coalition talks, after Sinn Fein’s surge complicated the search for a prime minister.

Current Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald each failed to muster enough support among lawmakers to form a government, as they returned to the Dublin parliament for the first time since the Feb. 8 general election.

Varadkar will continue in a caretaker capacity until a new premier is chosen, with parliament set to meet again next month to try choose his successor. In Thursday’s vote, Varadkar won the backing of 36 lawmakers, Martin 41, and McDonald 45 -- all fall short of the 80 required.

While McDonald won the most support, Fianna Fail and Varadkar’s Fine Gael, the nation’s traditional parties of government, have refused to govern with her because of the party’s past links with the IRA and its left-wing policies. Bank and real estate shares fell in the wake of Sinn Fein’s election gains, which upended the nation’s traditional power structure after almost a century.

“The vote will sharpen minds to try to get a government formed in the weeks ahead,” Gary Murphy, a politics lecturer at Dublin City University, said. Mary Lou McDonald ``will still face a mammoth task to get to a majority.”

Coalition talks will begin in earnest after Thursday’s vote -- in 2016, it took nearly three months to form a government after the election.

Varadkar has said he’s preparing to go into opposition, adding he would only seek a coalition with Fianna Fail as “a last resort.” Still, a so-called grand coalition led by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail remains the most likely government, according to betting odds.

While Varadkar’s minority administration was propped up by Fianna Fail under a confidence and supply agreement, a similar scenario is unlikely this time, according to Murphy.

“It’s coalition or bust really,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net;Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net

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