Ierse regering stelt datum verkiezingen vast voor maart (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Irish voters have been called to cast their ballot on 11 March in the first general elections since two referendums on the Lisbon Treaty and a multi-billion EU-IMF sponsored loan was handed to Dublin with tough conditions attached imposing further fiscal austerity on the country.
Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen i on Thursday (20 January) set the election date for 11 March, vowing to stay in power until the austerity budget, required under the international loan, is passed.
"I believe it is important in the weeks ahead that the government gives legislative effect to the budget through the enactment of the Finance Bill and other related bills which benefit the people. There's nothing more important than doing precisely that," Mr Cowen said.
The prime minister was forced to re-assign six portfolios to existing ministers, rather than appoint new faces, amid a series of resignations in the past few days.
Foreign minister Micheal Martin resigned Tuesday night after losing his challenge to Mr Cowen's leadership of the ruling Fianna Fail party, his move being followed by five colleagues in charge of health, justice, defense, transport and enterprise. This comes on top of the withdrawal from government of a junior coalition partner, the Green Party, in November 2010, lambasting Mr Cowen for "betraying" the Irish people by agreeing to the international bailout.
Meanwhile, another minister, Connor Lenihan, in charge of science and technology, on Thursday afternoon called on Mr Cowen to resign - a sign that the turmoil within the Fianna Fail party is far from over.
"It's a shambles," Enda Kenny, leader of the largest opposition party, Fine Gael, said in an interview with broadcaster RTE. "The last days of a desperate government."
Fine Gael is a pro-EU centre-right party, part of the European People's Party and is the frontrunner in polls ahead of the general elections, at 35 percent, according to a poll carried out by Red C this month. Support for Mr Cowen's party, a member of the European Liberals and in power since 1997, has meanwhile dropped to 14 percent.
Voters are particularly disgruntled with the state of the economy, with the financial system run into the ground despite massive state capital injections into the country's biggest banks. This contributed to a ballooning of Ireland's budgetary deficit in 2010, forcing it to seek an €85 billion lifeline from the EU and the IMF.
Perceptions that Mr Cowen had performed badly in safeguarding Ireland's interests came to the forefront in 2009, when, under pressure from other EU governments, he agreed to a second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty after a first plebiscite rejected the EU document only a year earlier.