Things aren’t looking too good for the rainbow coalition of Fine Gael, Labour and possibly the Greens. Yesterday’s election had a very high turnout and Fianna Fail, the leading party in the most recent coalition has about 41% of the vote.
Right now, all indicators are that the next coalition will be led by Fianna Fail. But who will the junior party be? The Progressive Democrats, Labour (despite their pre-election pact with Fine Gael) or even Sinn Fein.
I’d hoped to get home to vote, but work didn’t permit. In Brussels, only Irish civil servants and their spouses are permitted to use a postal vote. I’ve no serious complaints. If our diaspora was allowed to run the show, the provos would have been in years ago.
{ 16 comments }
Ben Alpers 05.25.07 at 2:46 pm
Does Ireland have the most opaquely named major parties of any industrialized democracy?
Not that “Democratic” and “Republican” tell you much about what our major parties stand for, but even translated “Tribe of the Irish” and “Soldiers of Destiny” (or “Soldiers of the Irish”) tell you even less about what Fine Gael and Fianna Fail believe in.
Jacob Christensen 05.25.07 at 3:04 pm
@ maria: Perhaps a stupid question – but does this mean that “ordinary” Irish ex-pats are allowed to vote in national elections, provided they do so in Ireland, or were you eligible to vote because you are not only an Irish citizen but also registered with an Irish address?
@ ben: Ourselves is also a rather stange name for a party even if it’s not quite as outrageous as the names of the two main parties. (Just to throw in a Danish angle: In Denmark the Left is a right-wing party, and the Radicals centrist pragmatists – but we really can’t beat the Irish here)
Andrew Brown 05.25.07 at 3:12 pm
Sweden used to be governed by a coalition between the moderate party, the centre party, and the people’s party — names which would have told you nothing at all, until you realised that none of them contained the words “social” or “democrat”.
jay bee 05.25.07 at 3:57 pm
Jacob: You have to be ordinarily resident in the State at the time the Register is drawn up in order to vote. If you are an Irish citizen living abroad you cannot be entered on the Register and you cannot vote in an election (or referendum) in Ireland. The only exception to this is in the case of Irish officials on duty abroad (and their spouses) who may register on the postal voters list.
And Maria is ordinarily resident…?
Very depressing outcome to the election but at least the PDs are doing very badly and Sinn Fein are certainly not doing as well as expected.
Jacob Christensen 05.25.07 at 3:59 pm
@ andrew: Used to? Add the Christian Democrats and you have the present governing coalition ;-) (The Moderates are the conservatives, the Centre Party represents the rural periphery and the People’s Party is … well … small)
By the way: Is there anything progressive about the (Irish) Progressive Democrats?
nick s 05.25.07 at 4:08 pm
Does Ireland have the most opaquely named major parties of any industrialized democracy?
Well, the opacity’s not just in the name. They’re historically the pro- and anti-Treaty parties, but they’re both basically centrist, leaving voters a choice of their preferred
crookleader.I understand the reason for limiting expat votes, given the fairly generous provision of passports to the grandkids of the diaspora, and of course to anyone north of the border who desires one. Stark contrast to the UK, which has long allowed Irish residents to vote.
jay bee 05.25.07 at 4:24 pm
Nick: I don’t make a habit of defending Fine Gael but the leadership of the party is/has been a crook free zone.
I assume you meant the UK allows Irish citizens resident in the UK to vote but that there is no reciprocal arrangement – I don’t know about other countries, but is it the case that the UK is unusually generous and most countries confine the voite to citizens as opposed to residents?
P O'Neill 05.25.07 at 4:29 pm
The only exception to this is in the case of Irish officials on duty abroad (and their spouses) who may register on the postal voters list.
That’s a distinction should be ripe for a constitutional challenge. What exactly is different about working for the state abroad versus working for a private firm? The initial employment decision is equally voluntary in both cases.
But anyway, the election itself. The best rationalization one can make is that the electorate didn’t want to upset the applecart but did want a more effective opposition, hence the surge to FG. Once again, though, the incompetence, bloat, and scandal of FF governments appears not to bother a critical mass of the electorate. Maybe they’ll get the number of ministers up to 40 in the new government? (currently 31).
chris y 05.25.07 at 5:17 pm
p.o’neill – How is that 31 calculated? Because if you include all the pussies and lords in waiting in the UK government, then the total number of placemen/women (around 120) is about the same as a ratio to membership of the lower house – far too many, of course, but the bloat doesn’t seem to be an exclusively Irish problem.
Mark O 05.25.07 at 5:40 pm
I’ll pedantically point out here that expats like myself are allowed to vote in the Seanad elections of “university candidates” (http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/government-in-ireland/elections-and-referenda/national-elections/election_of_university_candidates_to_the_seanad) since they are based on a postal vote system.
P O'Neill 05.25.07 at 6:26 pm
chris y, I had wondered about that because there do seem to be some UK departments with quite a few ministers floating around e.g. the ones who get sent to the House to make an embarrassing U-turn on a previous senior minister statement (I think Ruth Kelly sent some other minister to announce the home energy packets U-turn). My calculation for the Republic is a Cabinet of 15 (including Bertie) and 17 junior ministers. To me it’s inconceivable that it really takes a ministerial pool of that size to run a place the size of the Republic — especially considering that the overall talent pool from which these people are selected is not especially inspiring. Bloat is endemic but it can be fought. Look what Sarko did in France. Halved the number of Chirac ministers.
nick s 05.25.07 at 9:31 pm
is it the case that the UK is unusually generous and most countries confine the voite to citizens as opposed to residents?
It appears to be so: if a country’s citizens were classed as ‘British subjects’ in 1918, they can vote in general and local elections, while EU citizens can vote in European parliament elections. Small compensation for empire, but there you go.
(And I stand corrected on two counts: British citizens resident in Ireland can vote in Dáil elections, though not referenda; and Fine Gael has indeed been crook-free at the top.)
Maria 05.25.07 at 9:42 pm
It’s a sickening result. Victory for the gombeen men.
Andrew Brown 05.25.07 at 10:44 pm
@Jacob — I know; but the trouble for my purposes is that you can guess something about the policies of a party calling itself “Christian Democrat” from its name. Of course, closer contact with it might prove these guesses entirely wrong — I interviewed their minister for the family earlier this year, and I _still_ don’t know what he stands for. But it is a more informative name than “moderate”.
Oh, and the neofascists are called the “Sweden Democrats”
Daragh McDowell 05.26.07 at 2:08 pm
Even coming from a family whose shirts are a fairly deep shade of blue, it has to be pointed out that FG has been a relatively crook free zone. Anyone remember a certain Michael Lowry (now an independent TD.)
As for names: well Sinn Feinn translated as ‘ourselves alone’ aptly sums up the loony autarkic policies of de Valera-nomics that seem to have followed on in SFs present incarnation. Proposals this time around in their manifesto included renationalising Aer Lingus, an idea so ludicrously stupid I’m surprised it didn’t get more ridicule from Michael during the debats.
But for misnomers, its still got to be Vladimir Zhirinovskii’s ‘Liberal Democratic Party of Russia’ or indeed even the ‘National Bolsheviks.’ Reminds me of that Simpsons episode where McBain is ‘under attack by Commie-Nazis.’ The Nats-Bol even have the same symbol as the planes!
Jacob Christensen 05.27.07 at 11:24 am
@ andrew: Completely off-topic with regard to Ireland but the Swedish Christian Democrats are easy to classify:
They are anti-abortion. Except, they support abortion. They are also pro-privatisation of the health care. Except, they are anti-privatisation of health care.
(Sorry for hijacking the Irish thread)
I recall that Danish radio used to follow the dealings of Charles Haughey with quite a bit of fascination. Scandinavians aren’t really used to that kind of politicians.
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