Taoiseach of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, set to resign on Thursday

Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach of Ireland has announced he intends to resign as the country’s leader on Thursday after the countries recent election process ended in a deadlock.

Varadkar’s party Fine Gael suffered a crushing defeat at the 8 February election which ended with votes split three ways among his party,  republican party Fianna Fáil, and Sinn Fein, historically the political front of the IRA.

Following the election Varadkar has been leading amonmitoriy government, in a confidence-and-supply arrangement with Fianna Fáil. All three parties have ruled out forming coalitions to form a majority government.

This week politicians held a vote to see who would become the next Taoiseach, and Varadkar scored the least votes with just 36 politicians voicing their support for him. It is predicted that Fine Gael may through their support behind Fianna Fáil, having ruled out working with Sinn Fein.

Leo Varadkar was elected to Irish parliament in 2007 and was appointed to the position of Health Minister in July 2014. In 2015 he publicly announced he was gay during a radio interview. The politician shared the information about his sexuality as the country headed towards a national referendum on same-sex marriage. Varadkar made the announcement on his 36th birthday.

In June 2017 he was elected leader of his political party Fine Gael, making him Ireland’s first same-sex attracted leader, and the fourth gay head of state in the world. He was the youngest person to lead the country, and the first who came from an immigrant background.

OIP Staff