Irish alliance of foes in prospect on 2nd day of vote count

“Fine Gael came in to correct what Fianna Fail had done to us”, said Antoinette Staunton, a retired fashion designer, as she walked close to government buildings in Dublin.

It is understood that the Fianna Fáil county councillors, who also number 10, may have a similar meeting so as to give their views to their two newly elected TDs, Dara Calleary and Lisa Chambers.

The rejuvenation contrasts with the fortunes of Pasok, one of two parties that dominated Greek politics as recently as 2009, when it took 44 percent of the vote in a general election.

Under fire Taoiseach Enda Kenny has broken his silence about his party’s failure to get re-elected last weekend, expressing his disappointment at the result.

With heavy doses of free-spending populism, Fianna Fail won the most parliamentary seats in every general election from 1932 to 2011, although it didn’t always win enough to block the Fine Gael-Labour alternative.

Following growth of 5.2 percent in 2014, Ireland remained the fastest growing economy in the European Union in 2015 with its gross domestic product (GDP) increasing by 6.9 percent a year ago, according to the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the European Union (EU).

The exit polls suggested a major transformation had occurred in the party system as a result, just weeks before the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, the most dramatic chapter of Ireland’s struggle for independence from Britain.

Sinn Fein’s final seat count is likely to fall short of the party’s high hopes, winning just over a handful of extra seats and further emboldening Fianna Fail, which is set to more than double its share to have twice Sinn Fein’s representation.

Mr Kenny’s Fine Gael secured 25 per cent in Friday’s election, according to a poll for broadcaster RTE.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, Mr Kenny said his Fine Gael party would work comprehensively with the manifold forces, factions and Independents to restore political stability in the “changed circumstances”.

Party sources are playing down the prospect of a grand coalition with Fine Gael.

“Either we could have another election now and do away with the count, or we’ll let them muddle around for a month or so and maybe they can think the unthinkable”, said Michael Marsh, a professor of politics at Trinity College Dublin.

The swing to anti-establishment and anti-austerity parties echoed recent election in other eurozone countries like Spain and Portugal which have produced political uncertainty.

Failure to create a new government would mean that Kenny’s five-year-old coalition with Labour will continue indefinitely in a lame-duck caretaker role. One warned it would boost the left-wing Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), by turning it into the main official opposition.

An editorial in the Sunday Independent newspaper urged the parties to listen to the “will of the people”.

Led by Micheal Martin, 55, a senior minister in the decade before the crash, Fianna Fail won 43 out of 158 seats with 8 left to be filled.