Simon Harris becomes Ireland’s youngest-ever prime minister
Al JazeeraMAR 2024
While this decision might make electoral sense given the recent negative polling of Fine Gael's coalition partners, Harris should be using his party's popularity to pass legislation. The Irish people care about housing, health care, and supporting Palestine, not preparing for snap election campaigns. This might result in the exact opposite outcome the PM is hoping for.
Despite a brief boost in polls, Simon Harris and Fine Gael face more skepticism than they'd like to admit. Fine Gael’s 13-year tenure, eight of which Harris was in government, has seen housing, healthcare, justice, and immigration issues worsen. As roughly half of the party's members of parliament aren't seeking reelection, it appears the Fine Gael regime may finally be coming to an end.
According to the Metaculus prediction community, there is a 45.28% chance that Fine Gael will win the most seats in the next Parliamentary election, followed 28.43% for Fianna Fáil and 25.28% for Sinn Féin.