Wolfgang Koydl on Ireland's problematic party system

Owing to its past crisis-stricken Ireland has an unusual party system, Wolfgang Koydl notes in the left-liberal Süddeutschen Zeitung. He draws parallels with likewise struggling Greece: "Geographically both countries are on Europe's periphery but in their own eyes they have played a central role in the continent: the Greeks as the founders of democracy and the Irish as the propagators of Europe's Christianity. Both countries groaned under the yoke of overpowering neighbours - here the Turks, there the British. And both countries went through civil wars unparalleled in their cruelty in the 20th century, and which left scars that have yet to heal. ... In Ireland this past has meant that the country has never had a normal party system in which liberal, Christian Democrat, conservative and social democratic forces vie for power. All the names sound like the titles of songs in a Chieftains concert: Soldiers of Fortune (Fianna Fail), Family of the Irish (Fine Gael), We ourselves (Sinn Fein). ... If there are elections in 2011 it won't be so much Fine Gael that profits from the failure of Fianna Fail but the eternal third in Ireland's party system, the small Labour Party. ... The only thing that has going for it is that it is outside the traditional party constellation."

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