Ireland is on track to have the youngest prime minister in its history after Simon Harris secured the leadership of the Fine Gael party this Sunday in the city of Athlone, in central Ireland, to replace Leo Varadkar, who announced his surprise resignation last week.
Harris, a 37-year-old higher education minister, but best known for helping lead the country’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic; He was the only candidate to put forward his name to succeed Varadkar, who had been Ireland’s youngest previous prime minister, or what the country calls its taoiseach.
Having gained support within the party, Harris is expected to be formally elected prime minister in the Irish parliament on April 9, after MPs return from their Easter holidays.
Harris will have more than a year to save the Fine Gael coalition from defeat in the parliamentary elections. Polls over the past three years have put Sinn Fein, a left-wing party that backs unification with Northern Ireland, a British province, as the favorite to lead the next government.
However, two further polls on Sunday confirmed a recent trend of support for Sinn Fein falling from the highs of 12 to 18 months ago, although they again generally showed smaller parties and independent candidates as the beneficiaries over the political parties. governmental.
A Business Post/Red C poll taken before Varadkar’s departure put Sinn Fein’s lead over a deadlocked Fine Gael at 6 percentage points, while an Irish Independent/Ireland Thinks poll after his resignation showed a lead of 5 points after a small increase for Fine Gael.
Varadkar announced his departure that caused widespread shock on Wednesday and took even his closest political allies by surprise. He ensured that Fine Gael would have a better chance of being re-elected under another leader.
Harris has spoken in recent days about how he became involved in politics as a “stubborn, moody teenager” upset by the lack of educational support for his autistic brother. He has tried to present himself as an “accidental politician”, even though he has spent most of his adult life in parliament.
He is one of Ireland’s most visible government ministers and a prominent media actor. His large social media presence led one opponent in parliament to dub Harris the “TikTok taoiseach.”
While the economy grew strongly under Varadkar, successive governments, of which Harris has been a part, have struggled to address a decade-long housing crisis and, more recently, the pressure of record numbers of asylum seekers and refugees. .
Inheriting a three-party coalition government working on the basis of an agreed policy program will give Harris little room for major new policy initiatives.
