Ireland Leader Haughey Survives No-Confidence Vote
Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey early today survived a no-confidence vote but was left heading a bitterly divided party and a Cabinet decimated by removals.
After a day of political drama, the ruling Fianna Fail party decided on a 55-22 vote to back Haughey, who has been at the party’s helm for 12 years.
No Irish prime minister has ever been deposed by his own party in the republic’s 70-year history.
Haughey, 66, fought a storming campaign to ensure he did not suffer the same fate as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, toppled by party insiders in a “palace coup” last November.
A populist either loathed or adored by the Irish, Haughey has been criticized for his handling of a string of recent financial scandals in state firms. The economy is stumbling after four years of growth, and Haughey’s popularity is at an all-time low in opinion polls.
Party rebels do not want him to lead the party into the next election, not due before 1993.
Haughey has said he will step down “with grace and dignity” at a time of his own choosing.
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