Ireland’s progressive Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has announced he will resign for “personal and political” reasons, less than two weeks after suffering a crushing defeat in a referendum to redefine marriage and the role of women in the constitution. .
Leo Varadkar, the Fine Gael politician who became the country’s youngest-ever Taoiseach in 2017, made a surprise announcement in Dublin on Wednesday that he was stepping down from leadership of the party and the country. Varadkar said he would remain prime minister until a new leader is elected and sworn in, which is likely to happen by the time the Irish parliament returns to sitting after the Easter recess.
The resignation was announced less than two weeks after Mr Varadkar and his government allies suffered an unexpected, at least to them, crushing defeat in two referendums this month. The proposed amendment would redefine marriage in the constitution as a “permanent relationship” and remove protections for women as “sexist”. in spite of, Recognition that the government will definitely win the voteit actually lost 67 percent and 73 percent for two questions.
This referendum is not Mr Varadkar’s first, in fact, one of the first major milestones of his leadership was to abolish the right to life of the unborn child and to ban abortion in a country that until recently was firmly Catholic. It was a referendum in 2018 to legalize it. He was also a leading figure in the campaign to legalize same-sex marriage, and the government won a referendum on same-sex marriage in 2015 when Mr Varadkar was a cabinet minister.
Irish media reported last year Mr Varadkar was said to be considering taking advantage of the constitutional amendment by marrying his long-term partner Matthew Barrett and “welcoming children” into the family. But these comments came less than a year after the Irish leader faced headlines about him. being photographed He had been “socializing” at gay nightclubs in Dublin, but dismissed it as a “personal matter”.
A similar scandal mirroring Varadkar’s video surfaced in Finland the following year, in which Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who like Varadkar is the youngest leader in the country’s history, was seen “intimately dancing” in a nightclub with a man who was not her husband. However, it was photographed. Marin resigned a few months later, again citing personal reasons.
Speaking in Dublin today, Mr Varadkar reflected on his time in leadership and the progressive mission of his time in government. community, women’s equality, and bodily autonomy. ”
He also said he was proud of increasing Irish people’s tax payments to pay for “international development” and hosting “more than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees”, an issue that the country of just 5 million people is proud of. He said that it has caused quite a bit of controversy in Ireland. people.
Mr Varadkar said he acknowledged that some people would be happy to hear of his decision, and although he explained the “personal and political” reasons for his resignation, he did not offer any “real reasons” for his resignation. I expected there to be speculation about it.
This story is developing and has more to come.
