Ireland’s rotten old order clings to power
Despite plummeting living standards and multiple crises in housing, education and health, another Fianna Fail-Fine Gael coalition approaches after an election with low turnout and no breakthrough for the left, writes NICK WRIGHT
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Nick Wright talks to photographer and author JANINA STRUK
IRELAND’S general election has finished with the two main parties of the Irish capitalist Establishment just two seats short of a majority big enough to form a coalition government.
In an election where near on half the electorate stayed away from the polls, Fianna Fail won 48 seats and Fine Gael 38. Sinn Fein won 39 seats, the Labour Party 11, the Social Democrats 11, and the Green Party lost all but one of its outgoing TDs. The number of independents elected was 23, while People Before Profit returned with three TDs.
To varying extent, all the parties likely to be included in a coalition government bear responsibility for the problems working people in Ireland face.
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