The Irish general election is this Friday. Simon Harris felt pretty confident when he called the election, but he must now be feeling pretty nervous during the last week of the campaign.
The Fine Gael share of the vote has fallen by six points in less than two weeks, reflecting a campaign that has been littered with missteps, and now trails both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin.
As the parties embark on a frantic final four days of campaign, and with the three-way televised leaders’ debate scheduled for tomorrow night, the three largest parties are all within two percentage points of one another.
The poll results will heap pressure on Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris who was forced to apologise on Saturday for an encounter with a disability care worker in Co Cork on Friday evening.
Among the smaller parties, the Green Party is at 4 per cent (up one); Labour 4 per cent (down one); Social Democrats 6 per cent (up two); People Before Profit 3 per cent (up one); Aontú 3 per cent (no change); Independents (including Independent Ireland) 17 per cent (down three).
Satisfaction with the Fine Gael leader has also fallen since the beginning of the campaign. Mr Harris is down from 50 per cent to 46 per cent, marginally ahead of the Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who is on 45 per cent (down one). The Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and the Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman are both unchanged on 31 per cent and 21 per cent respectively. Satisfaction with the government is also down by four points, to 35 per cent.
The government’s recent giveaway budget, which attempted to bribe curry favour with voters, does not seem to have worked. The cost of living is still the biggest issue for voters.
There have been some bizarre moments in this election. Google Fine Gael Twix if you have not heard the strange story of one of the candidates.
Then there is Gerry “The Monk” Hutch, who stands a real chance of getting elected as a protest vote. Despite Ireland being incredibly rich on paper, there are still many poverty and social problems that have been ignored by the alternating FF/FG governments. Who can blame some voters for wanting to shake up the Duopoly?
The TikTok Taoiseach might be undermined by the everyday realities of people’s inability to afford the basics in society like a house or childcare.
I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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