Brian Cowen

By Alan Fisher in Europe on February 28th, 2011

 

The result of the Irish General election was predictable.  The electorate's anger at the country's financial crisis runs deep and wide – and it was always likely to take revenge on the largest political party in the last government, Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny is the English translation from the Gaelic).

For two years  the opinion polls predicted that the movement which considered itself the natural party of government in the republic would take a beating.  And it did.  At the time of writing, it's facing its worst ever election result – it is likely to be only the third biggest party in government – it has lost high profile figures and been routed in areas considered to be natural strongholds.

By Alan Fisher in Europe on January 19th, 2011
Photo by EPA

Brian Cowen won. We expected him to. We predicted he would. And he did. The vote remains a secret, but I'm told he won by about 20 votes.

The meeting to discuss confidence in the Irish prime minister lasted more than three hours.

By Alan Fisher in Europe on January 18th, 2011

Brian Cowen is a tough political operator. You don't pick up the nickname Biffo because you like flower arranging and leave everyone feeling warm and fuzzy.

So when he stood up in Dublin on Sunday and asked his Fianna Fail party to back him or sack him, you knew he'd done his arithmetic and was pretty sure he'd win.

He's been in trouble for a while. In echos of the UK and Gordon Brown, he was finance minister to a long-serving and popular prime minister. He presided over the budget at a time of unprecedented expansion which no one thought would ever end and everyone loved him for it.

When elevated to the top job, he enjoyed a bit of a honeymoon period but when the global financial crisis began to bite, his popularity began to fall.

It's just two months since the country called in the IMF and the EU because of the state of the finances.

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