Irish PM favours May 2020 for next parliamentary election

Ireland's next parliamentary election should be held in May, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Thursday, arguing another eight months should allow his minority government to see the country through the worst of Brexit. Varadkar's Fine Gael party rules through a cooperation deal that the main opposition Fianna Fail party extended after the uncertainty created by Britain's protracted exit from the European Union kept either side from calling an election last year.

"I have always said that I believed that the next General Election should take place in the summer of 2020. I think May 2020 is the right moment," Varadkar said, according to the text of a speech to an annual meeting of his Fine Gael party. "We should also, by then, have secured a Brexit Deal or have guided the country through the worst of No Deal. Though timelines, when it comes to Brexit, are unpredictable."