Coalition parties ready for a rough weekend

The final day of the 2016 general election campaign began over a cup of tea.

Was it the end of the road for Enda and Joan?

A highly staged photo opportunity complete with tea and scones in Dublin’s Docklands was the last joint outing for the pair ahead of the moratorium on guff.

While the two are heading for a rough weekend — Burton in particular — they did their best to look happy.

But we all know they can barely stand each other and the visible lack of warmth between them was palpable.

No matter how hard the handlers and high-paid advisers tried to paint a picture of unity, the body language blew a major hole in that.

Maybe that lack of warmth has fed into the failure of the public to buy into the coalition parties’ campaigns.

All that aside, Kenny and Burton made an appeal for Fine Gael and Labour supporters to implement the vote transfer pact agreed between the two parties.

The Tánaiste has responded to the Taoiseach's 'whingers' comment https://t.co/K2Trd0BMen pic.twitter.com/t7fFQSXimT

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 22, 2016

Kenny said it had been a “great privilege” to lead the Coalition for five years and called on Fine Gael supporters to continue their preference for Labour candidates. Burton returned the favour, asking Labour voters to continue their preferences for Fine Gael.

Kenny said the return of the Government can be achieved, despite the polls suggesting otherwise.

He again said it is not his intention to do a deal with Fianna Fáil and Micheál Martin after the election.

In a further bid to regain some lost ground and taking his cue from his leader, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney acknowledged Kenny has made “some mistakes” during the election campaign but that he was a great party leader.

“He’s made some mistakes and we all have. He’s human. The Taoiseach lives under the microscope,” Coveney said.

Back in Dublin, as Kenny and Burton parted to await their fates, the opposition parties were keen to rain on the manufactured love in.

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Billy Kelleher, Fianna Fáil’s director of elections, said Fine Gael and Labour had used “fear and smear” as their main campaign tactic.

He correctly realised that the cruel reality of the Irish character is that by and large we are a sheep-like people who dread disruption and change.

So by campaigning on the basis of stability versus chaos, Kelleher’s comment sought to appeal to those undecideds who may drift to the Government on polling day to plump for Fianna Fail instead.

It's all to play for as Election 2016 campaigns enter their final days https://t.co/qJKrzBNKHd (DOD) #GE16 pic.twitter.com/7lsAXaI5Wh

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) February 22, 2016

Kelleher ridiculed the photo call by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste. “This is how desperate they are, sharing a cup of tea down by the docks,” he said.

“Things are really coming to an end for them. They have used fear and smear as their basic campaign tactic. They have changed their message, they have changed their policies, they have retreated from some of their major policies.

“They thought they really only had to turn up to Croke Park, didn’t have to play on the pitch, and that they could walk up the Hogan Stand and pick up the cup. But they forgot they actually had to play the match.”

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has called on young people “not to listen to the bullshit” but to come out to vote and to “vote wisely to elect a progressive government”.

It is now up to the people to have their say.

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