Sinn Féin is to begin talks with other Irish parties later on Wednesday in an attempt to form a new coalition government in the Republic of Ireland.
It follows Saturday’s general election in which no single party secured enough seats to win a majority that would have allowed them to govern alone.
Fianna Fáil finished with the most seats and is now the biggest party in the Irish parliament with 38 members.
Sinn Féin is one behind with 37 but it topped the first preference poll.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is hoping to lead the next government and said on Monday that she “may well be the next taoiseach (Irish prime minister)”.
The party has appointed its Donegal TD Pearse Doherty to lead its negotiating team as coalition talks begin.
Sinn Féin said Mr Doherty would initially seek meetings with some of the smaller left-wing parties which won seats in the Dáil Éireann (Irish parliament).
Speaking on Irish broadcaster RTÉ on Tuesday evening, Mr Doherty said the conversation with “like-minded parties” – the Labour Party, Green Party, Social Democrats and Solidarity People Before Profit – had already begun and would continue on Wednesday.
“We gave a commitment we would talk to everybody because this is grown-up politics,” he said.
“We need to sit down, we need to find out if we can find common ground.
“This is about dealing with crises we have in peoples’ pockets, in housing and health.”
During the election campaign, Fianna Fáil and the incumbent ruling party, Fine Gael, both said they would not go into coalition with Sinn Féin.
They said this was due to policy differences and Sinn Féin’s past links with the IRA.
On Sunday, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin did not rule out working with Sinn Féin but said “significant incompatibilities” still existed.
However, speaking to RTÉ on Tuesday evening, Fianna Fáil TD Jim O’Callaghan said his party’s position was clear.
“The position of Fianna Fáil remains the position as it was before the general election,” he said.
“We told people we wouldn’t go in with Sinn Féin into government and we aren’t going to do that.”
Sinn Féin won 24.5% of all first preference votes in the proportional representation (PR) election, compared to 22.2% for Fianna Fáil and 20.9% for Fine Gael.
Fine Gael also came in third place in terms of seats and now has 35 members in the Dáil.
However, no party came close to the 80 seats needed to hold a majority in the 160-seat parliament.
Talks to form a new government could take weeks or months.
In 2016, it took 70 days for the parties to agree on who would rule the country.
Those negotiations ended in an confidence-and-supply agreement, which produced a Fine Gael-led government, propped up by Fianna Fáil votes on key policy areas.
Original Article : HERE ;
from MetNews https://metnews.pw/sinn-fin-begins-bid-to-form-new-irish-government/
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