Re: Ireland News and Discussions
Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2024 6:04 pm
Leo Varadkar: Irish leader caps off legacy of firsts with shock departure
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... -departureWed 20 Mar 2024 17.12 GMT
When Leo Varadkar was a teenager on a school trip to Northern Ireland he smuggled fireworks back into the republic to set off some illicit bangs – but it is only now that he has sent a boom echoing across Ireland.
At the age of 45, Ireland’s youngest – and first gay, and first mixed race – taoiseach is stepping down.
Nobody saw it coming; not his party colleagues in Fine Gael, not his coalition colleagues in Fianna Fáil or the Greens, not the media. Yet there he stood on the steps of Government Buildings in Dublin on Wednesday making an emotional announcement, watched by shellshocked ministers and dumbfounded TV viewers.
“I believe this government can be re-elected,” he said. “I believe a new taoiseach will be better placed than me to achieve that – to renew and strengthen the top team, to refocus our message and policies, and to drive implementation. After seven years in office, I am no longer the best person for that job.”
He was resigning as leader of Fine Gael and will resign as taoiseach once a successor is named, he said. “My reasons for stepping down now are personal and political, but mainly political,” he said, without elaborating. Michael D Higgins, the president, apparently learned of his resignation just before the press conference.