DUBLIN (AFX) - Ireland will hold a general election next summer, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said in an interview yesterday with the Irish Independent newspaper.
'I haven't worked out the day, but it will be summer next year,' Ahern said.
Ahern, who has been prime minister for nine years, has headed two coalition governments of his own centrist Fianna Fail (FF) party and the small centre-right Progressive Democrats (PD) led by Deputy Prime Minister Mary Harney.
Ahern told the newspaper his preferred government partner after the next election was again the PDs but the door was still left open to a coalition with the centre-left Labour Party.
'A Fianna Fail-Labour government would be a very successful government if it were to happen, but it has been ruled out by the Labour Party,' he said.
Ahern has said in the past that he will bow out of politics when he is 60. His sixtieth birthday will be on Sept 11, 2011. newsdesk@afxnews.com afp/jlw COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited