Foreign

Ireland Elects 38-year-old Gay, Leo Varadkar As New Prime Minister

Published

8 years ago

June 2, 2017

Ireland’s ruling party, Fine Gael, has elected Leo Varadkar as its new leader on Friday.

Varadkar, a renowned gay, 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant, will become the youngest person ever to hold the office.

He will succeed Enda Kenny, 66, as prime minister in a striking generational and social change.

Varadkar, who is the current Social Protection Minister, defeated ministerial colleague, Simon Coveney, with an overwhelming majority of votes coming from the centre-right party’s lawmakers.

He is expected to assume office as prime minister when parliament next sits on June 13.

The newly elected Prime Minister had already received the publicly declared support of almost two-thirds of the parliamentary party, who account for 65 percent of the vote, meaning his defeat among ordinary members was unlikely to change the expected outcome.