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Cowen most likely to become Ireland's new prime minister
Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and the longtime deputy widely tipped to succeed him, Brian Cowen, were planning the next moves for their country and party yesterday following Ahern's bombshell resignation.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:44 April 4, 2008
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Brian Cowen. Most likely to become Ireland's new prime minister
Dublin: Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and the longtime deputy widely tipped to succeed him, Brian Cowen, were planning the next moves for their country and party yesterday following Ahern's bombshell resignation.
Most political analysts said they expect a rapid and unchallenged elevation of the 48-year-old Cowen, Ireland's deputy prime minister and finance minister since 2004, within the next two weeks.
A string of fence-sitters and potential rivals to Cowen within the Fianna Fail party announced they would not stand. All cited his exceptionally broad experience as minister atop six government departments since 1992.
Logical choice
Trade and Employment Minister Michael Martin declared Cowen unbeatable, and said he was "the logical choice given the breadth of policy areas that he's presided over."
On Wednesday, Ahern shocked Ireland by announcing plans to step down as premier and party leader on May 6. His move followed an 18-month investigation into his 1990s finances that has exposed him as the recipient of large amounts of ill-documented cash, some of which he admits came from business friends. He denies that any of the money amounts to bribes.
Fianna Fail officials said the most likely schedule for Cowen involved a short period for nominations followed by a vote toward the end of next week. If nobody stands against him, a formal recorded vote would not be required.
Only 77 of Fianna Fail's 78 lawmakers in Dail Eireann, the key lower house of parliament, are eligible to cast a vote. The remaining member serves as the Dail's neutral speaker.
Only two possible rivals, Education Minister Mary Hanafin and Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern, have yet to say whether they would challenge Cowen. But analysts universally give them no chance of marshalling more support than Cowen, the undisputed Cabinet heavyweight and a close Ahern ally.
Ahern announced that Cowen was his preferred successor in June 2007, shortly after Fianna Fail returned to power for a third straight election.
Reactions
'Inevitable decision'
Ireland's press yesterday hailed Prime Minister Bertie Ahern's role in transforming the country's economy and bringing peace to Northern Ireland, but said his decision to go was inevitable.
"It had to be this way and Bertie Ahern, the master of pragmatic politics, knew it," according to the Irish Times.
"He could not have stayed on for much longer without causing irreparable damage to his legacy, his party, the coalition government and the country."
The Irish Independent said he had made "the right decision."
The Examiner said Ahern had accepted what had become the "unavoidable conclusion" to his political career.
Ahern has come under pressure since a tribunal investigates corruption and payments to politicians. The tribunal is probing an allegation that he received payments of £80,000 from a property developer in the early 1990s.
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