LONDON (AP) — Ireland's President Michael Higgins dissolved Parliament Friday, clearing the way for a Nov. 29 election that will determine who controls government.
Prime Minister Simon Harris, who had until March to call an election, had announced the date Wednesday.
A historic coalition government led by Harris' center-right Fine Gael party and its center-left rival Fianna Fail has been in power since the 2020 race ended in a virtual dead heat.
“We did not agree on every issue but we did always work hard and together for the good of the Irish people,” Harris said. “The time is now right to ask the Irish people to give a new mandate.”
Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, which arose from opposing sides of Ireland’s 1920s civil war, shared a broadly centrist outlook and had alternated holding power to govern Ireland over the decades. The two set aside their differences in 2020 to work together, bringing the Green Party along as a junior partner.
Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin served as premier for the first half of the term and was replaced by Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar in December 2022.
Harris took over when Varadkar stepped down earlier this year.
The left-wing nationalist Sinn Fein party had won the largest share of votes in the election but was shut out of government because it couldn't assemble enough support to govern. Sinn Fein has been shunned by centrist parties because of its historic links to the nationalist militants of the Irish Republican Army and decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein said it was fielding more candidates in its effort to lead the government.
“After a century of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, it is time to make that change, to give Sinn Fein the chance to lead and the chance to deliver,” said party President Mary-Lou McDonald. “In Sinn Fein you will get a government that will move heaven and earth to make housing affordable, to bring home ownership back into the reach of working people and to restore hope for a generation.”
Ireland, which has a population of 5.2 million, has faced many of the same challenges of other countries since its last election: the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruptions due to the war in Ukraine and a surge of migrants from overseas.
Martin said the next five years would be challenging for the Irish economy, noting the impact from global conflicts and a potential change in U.S. trade policy change.
“The greatest threat to the Irish economy is external, and we need experience and we need leadership that has already demonstrated its capacity to weather significant events and shocks to lead us through the next challenging five years,” Martin said.
Harris said the coalition had protected people during coronavirus, supported Ukraine in its war and weathered the cost-of-living crisis.
Housing, immigration and childcare are some of the main issues for voters, he said.
He said he was pleased the government had set aside money to weather any future trade shocks.
“We used to be ridiculed for this,” Harris said. "This is exactly why we have the buffer that is there, is a trans-Atlantic shock or indeed any other shock to our economy, my children will never have to experience the austerity that our generation did.”
Ireland in 2010 faced national bankruptcy over the cost of saving its failing banks. It adopted an austerity program as one of the conditions for an international bailout but rebounded strongly after exiting the bailout in 2013.
FILE - Prime Minister of Ireland Michael Martin arrives at John Hume's funeral Mass at St Eugene's Cathedral in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, Aug. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, File)
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris makes a statement outside Government Buildings ahead of the Dail being formally dissolved for the General Election scheduled for next Nov. 29, in Dublin Friday Nov. 8, 2024. (Gareth Chaney/PA Wire/PA via AP)
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris makes a statement outside Government Buildings ahead of the Dail being formally dissolved for the General Election scheduled for next Nov. 29, in Dublin Friday Nov. 8, 2024. (Gareth Chaney/PA Wire/PA via AP)
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Russia and Ukraine are due to hold their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for Turkish-brokered negotiations, but officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year war.
A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was due to meet with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky.
The latest push to end the fighting got off to a rocky start on Thursday, when Russian President Vladimir Putin spurned an offer by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face. Delegations from the two countries also flew to different Turkish cities and put together teams of significantly different diplomatic heft for possible talks.
Although expectations for a possible Putin-Zelenskyy meeting were low, the apparent lack of traction in peace efforts frustrated hopes of bold steps being taken in Turkey toward reaching a settlement.
The two sides are far apart in their conditions for ending the war, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday during a trip to the Middle East that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.
On Friday, Trump said a meeting with Putin would happen “as soon as we can set it up.”
“I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters in Abu Dhabi.
Ukraine has accepted a U.S. and European proposal for a full, 30-day ceasefire, but Putin has effectively rejected it by imposing far-reaching conditions.
Meantime, Russian forces are preparing a fresh military offensive, Ukrainian government and Western military analysts say.
After Putin didn’t take up Zelenskyy’s challenge to sit down with him in the Turkish capital on Thursday, the Ukrainian president accused Moscow of not making a serious effort to end the war by sending a low-level negotiating team that he described as “a theater prop.”
Even so, Zelenskyy said that he was sending a team headed by his defense minister to Friday’s meeting in Istanbul. That would show Trump that Ukraine is determined to press ahead with peace efforts despite Russian foot-dragging, Zelenskyy said, amid intense diplomatic maneuvering by Kyiv and Moscow.
The Russian delegation also includes three other senior officials, the Kremlin said. Putin also appointed four lower-level officials as “experts” for the talks.
A flurry of diplomatic activity took place in Istanbul before the talks.
Ukrainian officials held an early-morning meeting with national security advisers from the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom to coordinate positions, a senior Ukrainian official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The U.S. team was led by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, while Umerov and presidential office chief Andriy Yermak represented Ukraine, the official said.
A three-way meeting between Turkey, the U.S. and Ukraine also took place, Turkish Foreign Ministry officials said. The U.S. side included Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as Kellogg.
Rubio on Thursday said he didn't foresee major developments in Istanbul.
“We don’t have high expectations of what will happen tomorrow. And frankly, at this point, I think it’s abundantly clear that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here is between President Trump and President Putin,” Rubio told reporters Thursday in Antalya, Turkey.
Zelenskyy, meantime, flew to Albania to attend a meeting Friday of the leaders of 47 European countries to discuss security, defense and democratic standards against the backdrop of the war.
Aamer Madhani in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, servicemen prepare the drone "Kazhan" that delivers supply and carry heavy bombs, on the front line near Chasiv Yar town, in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)
Vehicles begin arriving outside a gate prior to expected talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the Dolmabache palace, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Dilara Acikgoz)
Vehicles begin arriving outside a gate prior to expected talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations at the Dolmabache palace, in Istanbul, Turkey, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Dilara Acikgoz)
