Ireland's first gay PM Leo Varadkar formally elected

International Desk: Leo Varadkar, the son of an Indian immigrant who came out as gay in 2015, has been formally elected as Ireland’s next prime minister at a confirmation ceremony in the Dáil in Dublin.

The former GP won the Fine Gael party leadership earlier this month. On Tuesday, he announced on Twitter that he had appointed his main leadership rival, Simon Coveney, as deputy leader of the party.

Enda Kenny, the outgoing prime minister, nominated Varadkar to succeed him at the start of the Dáil proceedings. Kenny was the longest standing Fine Gael taoiseach.

Varadkar, a doctor educated at Trinity College Dublin, entered Irish politics in 2004, when he got almost 5,000 votes in a local government election in the Dublin West constituency. Three years later, he was elected to represent the area in parliament.

In 2014, he became Ireland’s minister for health and, after Fine Gael suffered losses in last year’s general election, he entered a minority coalition as minister for social protection.

In a 2015 interview with RTÉ national radio, he came out and said: “It’s not something that defines me. I’m not a half-Indian politician, or a doctor politician, or a gay politician, for that matter. It’s just part of who I am. It doesn’t define me. It is part of my character, I suppose.”

Agencies


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