Ireland's first gay prime minister Leo Varadkar formally elected

Author

28 June, 2017

When Leo Varadkar's Indian father, Ashok, moved to Ireland in the 1970s, he chose one of Western Europe's most socially conservative countries to call home.

But rather surprisingly Varadkar's former rival Simon Coveney, will be the new Minister for Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for Brexit, despite his wish to remain on as housing minister.

Fine Gael's new leader Leo Varadkar will be elected as taoiseach on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Varadkar won leadership of the country's center-right Fine Gael party.

Given that he has inherited a number of challenging problems it will take some time to see whether or not Leo Varadkar's Government can handle the pressures of sustaining an ever changing Ireland and it's people.

But at elections past year, Kenny suffered a backlash from voters who felt the recovery was passing them by and only just clung onto power in a weak minority government.

After Varadkar was elected by parliament, Irish President Michael D Higgins appointed him as prime minister by signing the warrant of appointment at Aras an Uachtarain (the official residence of the Irish president).

In his first speech as Taoiseach, Varadkar told the Dail, the Irish Parliament, "The U.K. has been through some bad tragedies over the past few weeks so we offer them our sympathy and solidarity".

Paying tribute to his predecessor, Enda Kenny, who resigned on Tuesday, Mr Varadkar said: "I have no doubt, only for him, this country as we know it would not be here today".

"As our youngest taoiseach, he represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other", Kenny said. "Friends, today I'm honoured to have been elected as leader of the party".

His partner, Matthew Barrett, works as a doctor and have been together since 2015.

Kenny said of his successor, "I am confident he will carry out the role with energy, integrity and skill". He will also be immediately saddled with Brexit negotiations, given that Ireland shares a major border with the UK.

He said also that later this week he would meet Northern Ireland's political parties and repeated that the Irish government has an important role as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.

Following the vote, Varadkar addressed parliament and promised to not let party lines divide the nation or prevent a successful presidency.


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