Sweet Mary Lou, we’re just not in love with you. That was the stark eve of Valentine’s Day message from Fianna Fail to the Shinners yesterday.
A bold Micheal Martin and his Soldiers Of Destiny in Fianna Fail rebuked Mary Lou’s letter to form a government. No love in the air around Leinster House then.
So now Micheal has little option other than go into a grand coalition with his old foe Leo Varadkar – with the Greens thrown in.
And sure aren’t the Greens just posh Fine Gaelers on bikes anyway.
Two big centre-right parties with a bunch of well-heeled cyclists aboard would have 85 seats – a comfortable majority.
And in the natural order of things, we’d have a mostly right-wing Government, with a left-leaning Opposition.
That might well work. Micheal would achieve his long quest to be Taoiseach, stand aside after two-and-a-half years and then let Leo back in as the big boss. Leo just loves being Taoiseach.
But Micheal would have to lay down the law from the start. No way could the country allow a bumbling clown like Eoghan Murphy back into housing or a hapless schoolboy like Simon Harris oversee health. Back of the class for this pair of muppets.
Give the Greens environment and let them save the planet.
A FF-FG-Green coalition might not be what the country wants but there are very few alternatives.
Micheal is a cute and canny politician, though. He won’t go to Leo proposing a political bromance just yet. Not for a few weeks anyway.
He’ll let Mary Lou and her merry band burn themselves out in the days ahead trying to form a government of the left. Simple mathematics should tell her she hasn’t the numbers.
In a few weeks, when Mary Lou and the leftie TDs have exhausted all avenues, Micheal will appear again and make moves on Leo and Fine Gael.
It’s not what any of us voted for, left or right. But it would at least provide a stable government.
Of course, the other option is another General Election.
Sure, the Shinners would go gunning – oops, apologies Mary Lou – for more seats this time. And odds are they would get a fair few too.
But in reality it would be another three-way split. So watch now as Micheal stands back and Leo lies low while Sinn Fein chase their tails.
Then, in a few weeks, the great Micheal and Leo bromance will be back on. Oh, and don’t forget Eamon and the bike brigade.
