DUBLIN (AFP) – Ireland’s election race is set for a tight finish as frontrunner the centre-right Fine Gael led by Prime Minister Simon Harris has slumped in polls before Friday’s vote.
Fine Gael fell by six per cent, according to an Irish Times/Ipsos poll published yesterday, while a weekend poll by the Sunday Independent indicated a four-per-cent drop.
The party, which has been in office since 2010, entered the campaign which began on November 6 widely tipped for a smooth return to power along with its outgoing coalition partners Fianna Fail, also from the centre-right. But Fine Gael’s campaign has been hindered by missteps and gaffes.
Social media savvy Harris, who took over from predecessor Leo Varadkar as leader last April and oversaw a robust recovery in his party’s ratings, turned his back on a disability sector worker.
The clip has been seen more than 2.5 million times. Harris issued an apology to the worker the following day. According to yesterday’s poll, Fine Gael have slumped to third place (19 per cent) behind Fianna Fail (21 per cent) led by Micheal Martin and the leftist-nationalist Sinn Fein (20 per cent). The pro-Irish unity Sinn Fein won the largest vote share at the last election in 2020 and were seen as the most likely winner in 2024 until a plunge in support this year, mainly over its stance on immigration.
Tensions are running high over huge increases in asylum applications, exacerbating existing tensions about a lack of affordable housing.
Mary Lou McDonald, Sinn Fein’s leader and potentially Ireland’s first ever female prime minister, has pledged to initiate a referendum on Irish unification by 2030 if she wins.
