LONDON – Ireland is poised to get its youngest-ever premier after Simon Harris secured the leadership of the Fine Gael party on Sunday, replacing Leo Varadkar who announced his surprise resignation last week.
Harris won a series of endorsements from within the Fine Gael parliamentary party and is expected to be formally elected premier in the Irish parliament in April after lawmakers return from their Easter break.
Harris has said that he would remain fully committed to the program for government agreed upon with coalition partners Fianna Fail and the Green Party. He has stopped short of ruling out a general election this year, but insisted such a poll was not his priority.
Irish Prime Minister Quits Just Two Weeks After Defeat in Progressive Referendum to Rewrite Constitutionhttps://t.co/ECjxQhmbAD
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 20, 2024
Varadkar, 45, has had two spells as taoiseach – between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheál Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fáil.
He played a leading role in campaigns to legalize same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.
He led Ireland during the years after Britain’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union. Brexit had huge implications for Ireland, an EU member that shares a border with the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. U.K.-Ireland relations were strained while hardcore Brexit-backer Boris Johnson was U.K. leader, but have steadied since the arrival of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Irish Prime Minister Admits EU Protocol ‘Imposed on Northern Ireland’ Without Consent https://t.co/I9YyuX2K2C
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 21, 2023
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