Defiant Irish PM Cowen faces confidence vote this week

Cowen’s surprise move capped a week of political crises that brought his coalition government to the brink of collapse. Never before in Irish history has a politician sought to remain prime minister without being leader of the main government party.

Cowen said he expected the government to defeat a motion of no confidence tabled by the opposition Labour Party.“The parliamentary majority in the house will be tested of course by a confidence motion on Wednesday evening. I believe that we will win that vote,” he said.

Furious party colleagues called for Cowen to quit as Fianna Fail chief after he bungled an attempted pre-election Cabinet reshuffle last Thursday. The other party in Cowen’s government, the Greens, blocked his plan to promote six new faces into Cabinet posts -- and Cowen, inexplicably, failed to anticipate their veto.

The Greens forced Cowen instead to announce a March 11 date for an election that Cowen has sought to delay since November.

Cowen insisted that he had taken his decision to resign as party leader only on Saturday morning and had not discussed the move with other Cabinet ministers.

“I’m concerned that renewed internal criticism of Fianna Fail is deflecting attention from this important debate,” he said of the March 11 election, which Fianna Fail is widely expected to lose.

Cowen -- who last week had rejected the notion that he could quit as Fianna Fail chief while remaining prime minister -- conceded that his move was unprecedented since Ireland gained independence from Britain in 1922.

“This isn’t the ideal situation, but we will manage the situation,” he said.

Cowen said by stepping down as Fianna Fail leader, he could focus purely on the immediate task of passing two pieces of deficit-fighting legislation linked to Ireland’s recent negotiation of a 67.5 billion euros ($91 billion) bailout loan.

He said Fianna Fail would elect a new leader within days who would “prepare and move forward the organization for the [election] campaign itself.”

Cowen declined to speculate on how was likely to succeed him. On Tuesday, he defeated a leadership challenge from Cork lawmaker Micheal Martin, who immediately resigned as foreign minister.