Irish Parliament elects Michael Martin as new prime minister – By Sommer Brokaw (UPI) / June 27 2020
June 27 (UPI) — The Irish Parliament elected veteran opposition leader Michael Martin as the country’s new prime minister Saturday.
The lower chamber, the Dail, voted 93-63 with three abstentions to elect Martin, a member of the center-right politician Fianna Fail Party, as taoiseach.
Martin, a 31-year veteran member of Parliament and nine-year party leader, was one of two nominees for the prime minister position. He faced Sinn Fein Party leader Mary Lou McDonald in the election.
Martin will lead an unprecedented three-party government, which includes rival center-right political movements, Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, along with a smaller Green Party. He pledged “recovery and renewal” would be the focus of the new government’s priorities amid the coronavirus pandemic, Brexit, a housing crisis, long hospital waiting times and the “existential crisis posed by climate change.”
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