The process of nominating a new prime minister led to widespread chaos and conflict.
Lawmakers in the Republic of Ireland have given up trying to appoint a new prime minister amid a bitter row over parliamentary procedure.
Chaotic scenes in Parliament on Wednesday mean the nomination of Fianna Fáil’s Michael Martin will have to wait until at least Thursday.
The Speaker of the House of Commons, or Dáil, expressed dismay at plans by the Sinn Féin party to allow independent parliamentarians, some of whom support the incoming government, to join them on the opposition benches. Then the chamber was suspended for the fourth time.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou Macdonald claimed that Fianna Fáil “wants to put its independent colleagues, supporters of the government, on the opposition benches and give them the same speaking rights as the opposition”.
Following Ireland’s Nov. 29 election, a coalition agreement was reached last week between the country’s two largest center-right parties and a group of independent lawmakers. Martin’s party won the most seats, but not enough to govern alone.
Fianna Fáil won 48 of the 174 legislative seats and Fine Gael won 38. The two parties share broadly similar centre-right policies, despite being at odds with each other during Ireland’s bloody civil war in the 1920s.
Under the coalition deal, Martin is expected to become prime minister – or Taoiseach – for three years, with Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, the outgoing leader, as his deputy. The two politicians will then exchange jobs for the rest of the five-year term.
The governing deal eliminates centre-left Sinn Féin, which will remain in opposition despite winning 39 seats.
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have refused to work with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during decades of violence in Northern Ireland due to their historic ties.
The new government is under enormous pressure to reduce rising homelessness, driven by rising rents and property prices, and to better absorb the growing number of asylum seekers.
The cost of living – particularly Ireland’s acute housing crisis – was a dominant theme in the election campaign, and immigration has become an emotional and challenging issue in a country of 5.4 million people that has long been defined by migration.
