Ireland’s Green Party bows out

Associated Press

DUBLIN

Ireland’s deeply unpopular prime minister suffered another blow Sunday as the small but pivotal Green Party withdrew from his coalition government, forcing a national election to be held next month rather than March and raising pressure on the premier to quit.

Brian Cowen is widely blamed for Ireland’s stunning slide to the brink of bankruptcy. His Fianna Fail party, which has won the most seats in parliament in every election since 1932, is expected this time to suffer a crushing defeat.

The Greens have just six seats, but losing them cost the ruling coalition its parliamentary majority. Their withdrawal means Cowen will be forced to dissolve parliament and call an election within days, nullifying the March 11 election date Cowen had announced last week. Analysts said a new election date, most likely in the second half of February, would be pinpointed this week.

Cowen ruled out resigning as prime minister before the passage of the 2011 Finance Bill, a deficit-fighting measure that will broadly raise income taxes as part of Ireland’s international bailout.

Ireland’s government has been heading for collapse since November, when Cowen was forced to negotiate a $91 billion loan agreement with the European Union and International Monetary Fund to prevent national bankruptcy.