Ireland’s Fine Gael party has elected a 38 year old Leo Varadkar as prime minister of Ireland. He will succeed Enda Kenny.
Varadkar will be confirmed as prime minister when Irish parliament next sits on June 13. Leo Varadkar has earned the distinction of becoming Ireland’s first gay prime minister.
His election is a striking sign of the Ireland’s rapid social change which was once a staunchly Catholic country.
He will also be the youngest person ever and the first from an ethnic minority background to become the Prime Minister of Ireland.
Mr Varadkar defaeted his rival Simon Coveney by garnering 60% of the votes to lead Fine Gael. Ireland decriminalised homosexuality in 1993.
It also became the first country to adopt gay marriage in 2015. Leo Varadkar’s father is a Mumbai-born doctor.
In 1970s, he met Miriam an Irish nurse in England whom he later married and moved to Ireland.
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