{"id":284152,"date":"2011-02-28T05:48:43","date_gmt":"2011-02-28T05:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/02\/28\/fine-gael-to-open-coalition-talks\/"},"modified":"2011-02-28T05:48:43","modified_gmt":"2011-02-28T05:48:43","slug":"fine-gael-to-open-coalition-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/28\/fine-gael-to-open-coalition-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Gael to open coalition talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div readability=\"100.983552632\">\n        \t\t  <span><br \/>\n    <span>28 February 2011<\/span><br \/>\n<span>Last updated at <\/span><span>00:48 ET<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Fine Gael is expected to start contacting potential coalition parties on Monday after its record victory in the Irish general election.<\/p>\n<p>The party is on course to win about 75 seats in the new parliament &#8211; just short of enough to form a majority single party government.<\/p>\n<p>It is most likely to form a coalition with Labour, who finished second in the poll.<\/p>\n<p>However, it could also form a pact with some of the newly elected independents.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday Fine Gael&#8217;s director of elections Phil Hogan said: &#8220;I expect that the leader of Fine Gael will be contacting Labour and will be contacting independents as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There seems to be a realisation that there are some important decisions coming up for the country in the context of EU matters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said he had not been contacted by Fine Gael, but said his party would be open to discussions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Fine Gael want a government for a period of five years, strong, stable that brings together the two largest parties, in what will be the closest we&#8217;re going to get in this country to essentially a national government, the Labour Party is willing to play its part in that,&#8221; Mr Gilmore said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I do say that the window of opportunity for that to happen is very narrow.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I believe that a government needs to be formed on the first day the Dail is back which is 9 March.<\/p>\n<div>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-12592833#story_continues_2\">Continue reading the main story<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<h2>Irish politics<\/h2>\n<p>\t\t<!-- pullout-items--><\/p>\n<p>\t<!-- pullout-body--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Dominated by two parties, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, which emerged after Irish nationalists split over the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty   <\/li>\n<li> Fianna Fail was once seen as more centrist, Fine Gael as more conservative, but differences have blurred  <\/li>\n<li> The Labour Party was the traditional junior partner in  coalitions until 1997<\/li>\n<li> The Green Party came into its own in 2007 when it joined Fianna Fail in coalition <\/li>\n<li> Sinn Fein, shunned by the mainstream because of its IRA connections, held nearly as many seats as the Greens in the outgoing parliament<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!-- pullout-links--><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;So really there&#8217;s about a week in which a programme for government can be put together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who is set become the next Irish prime minister, said he hoped a coalition could be agreed quickly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want a situation where this is going to be dragged out,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Mr Kenny promised to work to renegotiate the country&#8217;s crippling 85bn euro bail-out next week.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kenny also spoke with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday night.<\/p>\n<p>A Downing Street spokesperson said Mr Cameron had invited Mr Kenny to Number 10.<\/p>\n<p>The ruling Fianna Fail party suffered a crushing defeat in the election, with high profile casualties including deputy prime minister Mary Coughlin and tourism minister Mary Hanafin.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-four outgoing Fianna Fail TDs failed to be re-elected, while its coalition partner, the Greens, lost all six of its seats.<\/p>\n<p>Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin put on a brave face and said he believed that Fine Gael had managed to secure support from floating voters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a soft vote there for Fine Gael and Labour, just as there was for us for years,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Sinn Fein has won 13 seats so far in the Irish general election, a gain of eight on its representation in the last Dail. <\/p>\n<p>Party president Gerry Adams topping the poll in Louth after giving up his Westminster seat for West Belfast. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>See more here:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/go\/rss\/int\/news\/-\/news\/world-europe-12592833\" title=\"Fine Gael to open coalition talks\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fine Gael to open coalition talks<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 28 February 2011 Last updated at 00:48 ET Fine Gael is expected to start contacting potential coalition parties on Monday after its record victory in the Irish general election. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fine Gael to open coalition talks - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/02\/28\/fine-gael-to-open-coalition-talks\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Fine Gael to open coalition talks - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta 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