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LONDON (AP) – Ireland is poised to get its youngest-ever premier after Simon Harris secured the leadership of the Fine Gael party on Sunday, replacing Leo Varadkar who announced his surprise resignation last week. The 37-year-old Harris, who is the government’s further and higher education minister, was the only candidate to put his name forward to succeed Varadkar, who had been Ireland’s previous youngest prime minister, or what Ireland calls its taoiseach.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald today blasted “arrogant” political rivals for denying her party a place in the next Irish Government. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has ruled out entering a coalition with the left-leaning party because of historic links to the IRA. Ms. McDonald told a party meeting in Belfast: “The political establishment of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are circling the wagons in defense of a status quo that will not deliver the change citizens voted for last weekend. Because they don’t want change. That is why they said they wouldn’t talk to us. And it now...

Sinn Féin has declared victory in Ireland’s general election and called for talks with other main parties to form a coalition government. Its leader, Mary Lou McDonald, urged Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to start negotiations with the republican party as the scale of its breakthrough confirmed a realignment of Irish politics. Irish general election: who won and what happens now? Read more “Sinn Féin has won the election. We have won the popular vote,” McDonald said, as counting of votes to fill seats in Dáil Éireann, parliament’s lower house, continued in constituencies across the country. With full results expected...

A new exit poll suggests that Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin are tied when it comes to first preference votes, making the result of the General Election too close to call. The exit poll, carried out by Ipsos MRBI for RTÉ, The Irish Times, TG4 and UCD, indicates all three parties have 22% of first preference votes. The margin of error in this exit poll is ±1.3% — which means any of the three parties could be as low as 20.7% support or as high as 23.3%. […] The poll suggests a move toward Sinn Féin among younger...

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny faces mounting pressure from party colleagues to resign over his stumbling response to a police scandal. Lawmakers in Kenny’s Fine Gael party say their 65-year-old leader could be ousted next week if he doesn’t voluntarily specify a resignation date. […] Opposition leaders accuse Kenny’s weak minority government of failing to defend a whistleblower exposing corruption in Ireland’s police force. Documents published this month suggest a government agency helped senior officers circulate malicious gossip that falsely branded the whistleblower as a pedophile. …

Sinn Fein have surged by 3 points to 20 percent in the second week of the Irish election set for February 26th, according to the highly trusted Red C poll for the Sunday Business Post. Sinn Fein gains came despite a major media and political barrage aimed at the party after a bloody spate of Dublin gangland killings and Sinn Fein's position on ending the Special Criminal Court, which operates without juries and that tries gangland suspects. The Sinn Fein surge seems to have been at the expense of the current government partners, Fine Gael and Labour, who have dropped...

Minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton has described Ireland’s position on military neutrality as “narcissistic”, but conceded it would be difficult for Fine Gael to win public support for a major shift in defense policy. A report on Ireland by one of France’s main EU think tanks, due to be published today, quotes Creighton saying she is “very supportive” of Ireland joining common European defense, but doesn’t believe her party could gain “political traction for that in the short term”. … The report by Notre Europe (Institut Jacques Delors), published to mark the 40th anniversary of Ireland’s EU accession, concludes...

Fine Gael has hired a leading US political consultant and pollster, who has worked for Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela, to assist in its preparations for the next general election. Consultant Stanley Greenberg has also advised former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on election strategy. A Fine Gael spokesman confirmed that the party had retained Greenberg - who has offices in Washington, London and Tel Aviv - since just after the local elections in June. It is understood that Fine Gael has had a relationship with Greenberg's firm for even longer. This year...