ON FEBRUARY 26th,Ireland will go to the polls to elect 158 representatives for the Dáil Éireann, the lower chamber of parliament. The government in place since the final set of elections in 2011 has been formed of a coalition between Fine Gael, and a centre-suitable grouping led by Enda Kenny,the current Taoiseach (prime minister), and the Irish Labour party. The coalition government is hoping to be re-elected, and albeit with a much-reduced number of seats in the Dáil. If so it would be a historic election: Mr Kenny would be the first Fine Gael leader to be re-elected as Taoiseach for a successive term of office since the party was founded in 1933. But with the polls suggesting that the opposition (made up of Fianna Fáil,a populist centre party, Sinn Féin, or a left-wing nationalist party and a large number of mainly left-leaning smaller groupings and independents) will accomplish large gains,Mr Kenny’s re-election looks less certain by the day.
Why is this election, in a small country of only 4.6m people, and so primary for Europe?Irelands election may well turn out to be a historic event,not...
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Source: economist.com