Sinn Fein preference is to form Irish left-wing govt – leader

Sinn Fein’s first priority is to form a government with fellow left-wing parties, leader Mary Lou McDonald said on Monday. However, the Irish nationalist party will also talk to the country’s dominant center-right parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, she told RTE.

“My first job of work… is to establish with other parties whether or not there are the numbers, whether there is the political will, to deliver a new government without Fianna Fail or Fine Gael,” McDonald said. But she added that “of course” she would talk to everyone, including Fianna Fail and PM Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael.

Irish nationalists Sinn Fein demanded on Sunday to be part of the next government, Reuters said. The former political wing of the Irish Republican Army, which has recast itself as the main left-wing party, secured 24.5 percent of first-preference votes, almost doubling its share from the last election in 2016.

This result put it ahead of the center-right Fianna Fail, which is on 22.2 percent, and the Fine Gael party of PM Leo Varadkar, polling at 20.9 percent.