His party now narrowly trails both his main coalition partner, Foreign Minister Micheál Martin’s fellow centrists Fianna Fáil, on 21 percent, and Mary Lou McDonald’s left-wing opposition Sinn Féin, on 20 percent.
Fine Gael had led every poll since June, shortly after the 38-year-old Harris replaced an exhausted Leo Varadkar as taoiseach and party chief, reinvigorating a party seeking to extend a record 14-year run in power.
Fine Gael’s campaign has focused on Harris, plastering the country with posters featuring his face and the slogan “A new energy.” He’s crisscrossed the country daily to shake seemingly every hand on offer with a party-provided media bus in tow.
But that personality-driven campaign blew up in his face on Friday night.
Pressing the flesh at a supermarket checkout, Harris first tried to pass quickly by Charlotte Fallon. But soon he was bickering with her as Fallon questioned why his government wasn’t properly funding disability support workers like herself. Harris stiffly rejected her complaints, then tried to end the exchange with a curt handshake and a pirouette for the exit door.
“Keep shaking hands and pretending you’re a good man,” Fallon called after him. This spurred Harris to turn back, only to give up and turn away again, once she told him to his face: “You’re not a good man.”
