DUBLIN: Irish Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald was under pressure from her own party to resign to avoid a snap election, a crisis that is casting a shadow over next month's Brexit summit. Opposition party Fianna Fail, which has been propping up the Fine Gael minority government, said the deputy prime minister's refusal to quit would force the country to the polls in December.
Ireland will play a major role in the Brexit summit, telling European Union leaders whether it believes sufficient progress has been made on the future of the border between EU-member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.
In public, Fitzgerald's ministerial colleagues continued to back her. She had resisted calls to go following the release of fresh documents about her disputed handling of a police whistleblower who alleged corruption in the force. "There is certainly not a need for her to resign, the position of Fine Gael remains the same and the position of the Taoiseach (prime minister) remains the same," Simon Harris told reporters. A spokesman for Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, whom analysts say risks being badly damaged by the affair, said the government stood behind her. But a journalist said on Twitter that he was told Varadkar had asked Fitzgerald to consider the matter overnight.
One minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity said Fitzgerald was coming under serious pressure from within the party to resign and would have to go. National broadcaster RTE quoted Fine Gael backbencher Hildegarde Naughton as saying it will be difficult for Fitzgerald to stay. Another journalist quoted an Independent Alliance source as saying: "They're not backing her, she needs to go. We will make our views known to the Taoiseach at cabinet," the Independent Alliance group's Finian McGrath told reporters, refusing to comment on Fitzgerald's position.
Fianna Fail, whose backing Varadkar requires from the opposition benches to keep his government functioning, has said it would move a motion of no confidence in Fitzgerald unless she quits. A senior Fianna Fail lawmaker said he was hopeful Fitzgerald would resign or that Varadkar would "address the matter" before the confidence motion is tabled.
