Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced Wednesday that he will be resigning as leader of the nominally center-right Fine Gael party, and will resign as Prime Minister (or “Taoiseach”) as soon as his party names a successor.

Varadkar, 45, stated his reasons were “both personal and political.” He was the country’s first openly gay and first bi-racial Taoiseach (his father was Indian), and was one of the youngest leaders ever elected in the nation’s history. He served as PM from 2017 to 2020 and was reelected in December 2022.

“I’m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place,” Varadkar said in his resignation speech.

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The news of Varadkar’s resignation comes just weeks after two referendums he championed were defeated: a bill to remove language enshrining the mother’s role in the household and broaden the definition of the family in the country’s constitution. Varadkar had characterized it as “very old-fashioned language.”

“Clearly we got it wrong,” he said. “While the old adage is that success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, I think when you lose by this kind of margin, there are a lot of people who got this wrong and I am certainly one of them.”

Under Varadkar’s term, the Irish government saw 141,600 immigrants arrive into Ireland (which has a population of just 5 million) in 2022-2023, a 31 percent increase compared to the previous year. About 64,000 people also emigrated, for a net immigration of 77,600.

In late November, Ireland’s capital city of Dublin was engulfed in flames and vandalism by its native population after a migrant stabbed multiple children and teachers outside of a school. MMA fighter Conor McGregor attacked the Irish political establishment on X and made overtures to the notion of running for a government position himself. “This is NOT Ireland’s future! If they do not act soon with their plan of action to ensure Ireland’s safety, I will,” he wrote.


Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).

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