Ireland election results: Weeks of talks before a government [Video]

London –

Ireland faces weeks of coalition talks before it gets a new government, as the country’s two major center-right parties work to form a stable administration.

With all 174 legislative seats filled Monday after three days of counting election ballots, Fianna Fail had won 48 seats and Fine Gael 38. The two parties, who have governed in coalition since 2020, fell just short of the 88 needed to achieve a majority without third-party support.

“The people have spoken, let us now get on with the work,” said Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin.

Left-of-center party Sinn Fein won 39 seats in the Dail, parliament’s lower house, but is unlikely to be part of the next government. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have a longstanding refusal to work with Sinn Fein, partly because of its historic ties with the Irish Republican Army during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

“The outcome …