Irish Politics

spooiirt!!

Story, all. Ive no real knowledge of Irish politics, what parties there are, who is in power, etc. Is there a conservative party in power at the mo, or is there a more left wing party pulling the strings. How long has said party been in power? Who are the more conservative parties, and who are the more leftwing parties?
Ive only recently gotten interested in politics, cos we had an election over here in Germania. I know a thing or two about German politics, but nothing about irish politics.
cheers

Zombrex

spooiirt!! wrote:

Story, all. Ive no real knowledge of Irish politics, what parties there are, who is in power, etc. Is there a conservative party in power at the mo, or is there a more left wing party pulling the strings. How long has said party been in power? Who are the more conservative parties, and who are the more leftwing parties?
Ive only recently gotten interested in politics, cos we had an election over here in Germania. I know a thing or two about German politics, but nothing about irish politics.
cheers

Way too big a topic for a discussion thread, plus you will get loads of "FF/FG/Labour/Sinn Fein are great... FF/FG/Labour/Sinn Fein Suck" responces.

This is as good(ish) a place to start as any -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_politics

Its Wikipedia, so you can't be certain the information is totally correct, but for a good overview that page, and the ones linked from it, should be good

Wicknight

Wicknight wrote:

Way too big a topic for a discussion thread, plus you will get loads of "FF/FG/Labour/Sinn Fein are great... FF/FG/Labour/Sinn Fein Suck" responces.

True, if ever a thread was going to descend into a scrap this would be the one.

spooiirt!!

Thanks for the link. Is there a coalition Government right now?

ISAW

spooiirt!! wrote:

Thanks for the link. Is there a coalition Government right now?

No. There is a "partnership" government. The big partner with close to 80 seats (84 needed for a parlimentary majority) is Fianna Fail. the smaller one with less than ten seats is the Progressive democrats. with Proportional representation and multi seat constituencies an overall majority is more unlikely than in the first past the post system or other qualified majority voting. It is not impossible however. In the second last government FF nearly got it. One would need about 45-48 per cent of votes to get a majority of seats I reckon. Currently FF have less than 40. No other party is anywhere near that so it looks like coalition or partnership for the forseeable future.

Time Magazine

Deleted User wrote:

True, if ever a thread was going to descend into a scrap this would be the one.

Typical scaremongering from a Fianna Fáiler .


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