Ireland\u2019s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar says he is stepping down as the leader of the governing Fine Gael party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the surprise announcement on Wednesday, Varadkar said he would also relinquish his role as prime minister as soon as a successor is chosen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Varadkar told reporters in Dublin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s Easter break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Varadkar, 45, said it was the right time for him to step aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy reasons for stepping down now are personal and political, but mainly political,\u201d he said without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have nothing else lined up I have nothing in mind. I have no definite personal or political plans,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Varadkar has had two spells as prime minister \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Varadkar, whose mother is Irish and father is Indian, was also Ireland\u2019s first biracial prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He played a leading role in campaigns to legalise same-sex marriage, approved in a 2015 referendum, and to repeal a ban on abortion, which passed in a vote in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his resignation statement, Varadkar said, \u201cI\u2019m proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Varadkar has faced growing discontent within Fine Gael. Ten of the party\u2019s lawmakers, almost a third of the total, have announced they will not run for re-election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this month, voters rejected the government\u2019s position in referendums on two constitutional amendments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Changes backed by Varadkar that would have broadened the definition of family and removed language about a woman\u2019s role in the home were resoundingly defeated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result sparked criticism that the pro-change campaign had been lacklustre and confusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Varadkar recently returned from Washington, where he met President Joe Biden and other political leaders as part of the Irish prime minister\u2019s traditional St Patrick\u2019s Day visit to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next election must be called by early 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ireland\u2019s 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. \u201cI am resigning the presidency and leadership of Fine Gael and will …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[184,307,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-issues","category-main-news","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9618,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9617\/revisions\/9618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}