Irish PM says obligation on all to ensure political stability

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar reacts after the announcement of voting results, at a count centre during Ireland's national election, in Citywest, near Dublin, Ireland on February 9, 2020. (REUTERS Photo)

DUBLIN, February 12 (Reuters): Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, whose Fine Gael party came a narrow third in national elections at the weekend, said that while the poll had transformed politics, there was an obligation on all parties to deliver political stability.

The left-wing Sinn Fein Irish nationalist party surprisingly secured the most votes, marginally ahead of the centre-right Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, with weeks of negotiations likely needed to cobble together a majority in a fractured parliament.

Varadkar, whose party has strongly ruled out governing with Sinn Fein, told a banking conference on Wednesday that while the political centre in Ireland was diminished at the election, "it has held".