Irish Prime Minister Drops in Polls Days Ahead of Election
(Bloomberg) -- Just days before Ireland’s general election, Prime Minister Simon Harris has seen his support erode with his Fine Gael party slipping slightly behind both its coalition partner and the main opposition party, according to a poll released Monday.
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Fine Gael’s share has fallen by six points to 19% in the last two weeks according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A poll. Coalition partner Fianna Fail saw its share of the vote rise to 21%, up two points, while main opposition party Sinn Fein is up one point to 20%.
The three main parties are now all within two percentage points of one another —- all within the margin of error of 2.8%. Overall satisfaction with the coalition government is down by four points to 35%.
The shifts add drama to the final four days of an otherwise lackluster election campaign ahead of Friday’s vote. The drop in support puts considerable pressure on Harris, who called the early general election earlier this month in a bid to capitalize on a bounce in polls for his party in recent months and a slump in support for the main opposition party Sinn Féin. Based on current polls, his party will still be in a position to seek to form a coalition with its incumbent coalition partner Fianna Fail.
A separate poll released Sunday by the Sunday Independent and Ireland Thinks showed Harris’s party losing support, but still slightly ahead of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Fein, which gained slightly.
The coalition government presented a giveaway budget in October with a number of measures to woo voters including tax cuts and increases in welfare and pensions payments.
Harris saw his own personal approval rating in the Irish Times poll drop from 50% to 46%. He is still ahead of the leaders of the other main parties, who he will face in a televised debate on RTE television on Tuesday evening. Fianna Fail leader and Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin is down one point to 44%, while Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald is unchanged at 31%.
The third coalition partner, the Green Party, saw its support rise slightly, up one point to 4%.
Harris is seen as having made some missteps during the campaign and at the weekend he apologized for an encounter with a disability care worker while he was canvassing in Cork on Friday evening. The woman told Harris that carers have in her view been “ignored.” Harris denied the sector was being ignored and after a brief exchange, he walked away. In a social media post on Saturday, Harris apologized and said he “feels really bad” about the exchange.
Sinn Fein, the left-wing Irish nationalist party, was at one time leading in polls, but has seen its support plunge since last year. The party has also been hit with a number of scandals.
(Update with additional details in 4th paragraph and chart)
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