For Simon Harris and Fine Gael, the consolation prize would be a return to government for a party-record 14th straight year, but in a diminished second-banana role.Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Will booming Ireland boot out TikTok PM Simon Harris? – POLITICO

by · POLITICO

DUBLIN — Prime Minister Simon Harris thought he had a winning formula to keep his job: an electorate primed with bonus cash for Christmas, and state coffers bursting with tax from Ireland’s legions of American multinationals.

But as voters cast their ballots Friday in a complex system of proportional representation, a gaffe-prone Harris appears to have blown his chance to stay as Taoiseach, “chief” of Ireland’s next coalition government.

The most likely beneficiary looks to be Harris’ much more experienced partner atop the outgoing center-left administration, Foreign Minister Micheál Martin, the genteel elder statesman of Irish politics and leader of the rival Fianna Fáil party.