Sinn Fein won 37 and Fine Gael, the centrist party led by incumbent Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, took 35. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said her party would try to form a government with independent lawmakers and smaller left-wing parties such as the Social Democrats and the Greens. “I think it would be a mighty thing to have a Sinn Fein Taoiseach (prime minister) and also a woman, perhaps, in the job,” McDonald said. But there is no guarantee Sinn Fein will be able to assemble a stable coalition, even with the support of smaller parties. Both parties said before the election that they would not go into a coalition with Sinn Fein because of its links to past violence.

Source: thestar February 11, 2020 10:30 UTC