Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar says he is stepping down as the leader of the governing Fine Gael party.

In the surprise announcement on Wednesday, Varadkar said he would also relinquish his role as prime minister as soon as a successor is chosen.

“I am resigning the presidency and leadership of Fine Gael and will resign as taoiseach [prime minister] as soon as my successor is able to take up that office,” Varadkar told reporters in Dublin.

He said he had asked for a new leader of the party to be chosen on April 6, allowing a new prime minister to be elected after parliament’s Easter break.

Varadkar, 45, said it was the right time for him to step aside.

“My reasons for stepping down now are personal and political, but mainly political,” he said without elaborating.

“I have nothing else lined up I have nothing in mind. I have no definite personal or political plans,” he added.

Varadkar has had two spells as prime minister – between 2017 and 2020, and again since December 2022 as part of a job-share with Micheal Martin, head of coalition partner Fianna Fail.

When first elected as prime minister, Varadkar was the youngest person to hold the office, and the first gay prime minister of Ireland, a once-staunchly Catholic country.

Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland’s first biracial prime minister.

Source: AL Jazeera 

BDST: 1002 HRS, MAR 21, 2024
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