Ireland, within the fingers of the centrist events: voters doubt that the elections will result in change | International | EUROtoday

The Irish don’t share the identical electoral anxiousness that exists in different nations. When they go to mattress this Friday, they may have at most the results of an exit ballot that may have been made public at 10 pm (11:00 pm in Spanish mainland time) by public tv RTÉ. Nothing else. The ballots is not going to start to be counted till 9 within the morning (10 in Spanish peninsular time) within the completely different counting facilities the place all of the poll containers can have been beforehand concentrated.

“I hadn’t even thought about it, to be honest,” solutions Patrick Doyle, who’s leaving the St. Christopher Primary School polling station together with his daughter hand in hand. “I don’t think there will be a significant change in a few days. I fear that the same people as always will continue in the Government. The system does not greatly favor those of us who think that another option is possible,” he says resignedly.

Judging by his phrases, Patrick has voted for one of many minority events which might be preventing to achieve a foothold in these elections, such because the Social Democrats, the Greens or the so-called People Before Profit (People Ahead of Profits), which 4 years in the past managed to achieve a foothold on the Irish political scene.

But last-minute polls have drawn a right away future that predicts few adjustments. The three essential events, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and Sinn Féin, keep a technical tie with round 20% help every.

The first two characterize the political middle of the nation, wherein Irish residents have remained comfy for many years. They made the unprecedented choice, in 2020, to control in coalition, to keep away from stopping the rise of their frequent enemy, Sinn Féin, the celebration that traditionally was the political arm of the IRA terrorist group.

Four years in the past it was probably the most voted in absolute numbers, though not in seats. Its chief, the Dublin lawyer Mary Lou Macdonald, managed to reconvert the picture of the group, with a social, anti-system message and really targeted on the nice disaster that has been affecting the nation since then: the scarcity and excessive price of housing.

“The time has come for the people to draw the new Government. We need a new Government, but the important thing is that each person’s vote counts the same,” said McDonald at one of the headquarters of the association to help deaf and dumb people. The Deaf Villagein the northern Dublin suburb of Cabra.

One of the episodes that marked a generally rather unremarkable campaign was an unpleasant verbal exchange between the Prime Minister, Simon Harris, of Fine Gael, and a representative of disabled people who reproached him for having done little for that group. Harris had to apologize for his words and attitude hours later.

A deceptive wealth

When it decided to bring forward the elections, a little over a month ago, the polls gave a clear advantage to Fine Gael, a socially progressive and economically liberal party. In the final stretch of the campaign, the polls even place it in third place, tenths behind Fianna Fail and Sinn Fén.

Harris had a comfortable budget surplus, with €37 billion raised from large technology companies, which years ago chose Ireland as their European headquarters thanks to a generous 12.5% ​​corporate tax. To that figure we had to add the 14 billion more that Apple had to deliver to the Irish Government due to the imposition of European justice, which considered that the tax exemptions applied to the company were hidden state aid.

But just on election day the Government has agreed to publish the latest number of homeless people in Ireland: 14,966. Four years ago, when the coalition between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail was formed, the number was 10,148. The number of homeless people has increased by almost 50% during this term, thus revealing the shortcomings of a country that is experiencing a certain mirage of wealth.

Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have been busy promising tax cuts and generous subsidies to citizens, as well as announcing big plans to finally solve the housing problem.

“I feel very hopeful for the future of this country,” Harris merely stated on the polling station the place he went to vote early within the day.

He knows that only his party and Fianna Fail will be able to add the 87 deputies necessary to forge a government majority. Even if Sinn Féin achieved the feat of being the most voted again – and that is a complicated condition – it would have almost impossible to forge its own coalition. The other two main parties have already conspired not to form an alliance with the heirs of the IRA, and the amalgamation of parties on the left represents a zero-sum game. The further they advance, the further Sinn Féin retreats.

McDonald’s formation also brings with it an internal crisis caused by a series of poorly resolved sexual scandals and by its ambiguity regarding the growing irregular immigration. His traditional electorate does not forgive him for his open and progressive discourse in the face of the increase in asylum seekers on the island.

In just two years, 120,000 Ukrainians and almost 30,000 asylum seekers have arrived, most of them from the Middle East, to a country of 5.2 million inhabitants that until recently was more accustomed to producing emigrants than receiving them.

In it Grand Dock In Dublin, the dock that brings collectively the massive skyscrapers the place massive multinationals similar to Google, Meta, or PWC dwell, there was little exercise this Friday. Many workers are teleworking this present day. The few which might be seen on the road are both international residents or are unable to inform the correspondent if there are any polling stations within the space. Ireland’s essential supply of wealth appears to dwell in one other world, unrelated to the election day that’s going down within the nation.