In an unusual political coalition government arrangement, Leo Varadkar has stepped back into the position of prime minister for Ireland. He is Ireland’s first gay prime minister and was also its youngest when he initially took office in 2017 at the age of 38.
His appointment as taoiseach by the Irish Dáil (or parliament in English) on December 17th is something of a historic moment for the British Isles, since with Varadkar running Ireland and Rishi Sunak now the UK’s prime minister, both countries are for the first time being governed by men of Indian heritage.
Varadkar, born in Dublin to an Indian father and an Irish mother, took over as prime minister from Michael Martin as part of the agreement that formed the current tripartite coalition government. Following elections in 2020 in which Varadkar’s centre-right Fine Gael party underperformed, the country’s two main parties and decades-long rivals—Fine Gael and the centrist Fianna Fáil—formed a historic coalition with support from the Greens. Under the arrangement, ministerial positions were divided among the parties. Fianna Fáil’s Michael Martin first took up the post of prime minister with the promise to hand it over to Varadkar halfway through the government’s four-year mandate. Martin now has the position of deputy prime minister.
Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil emerged in Ireland in the 1930s following the civil war of the 1920s and the division of Ireland into the independent Republic of Ireland and the UK-ruled Northern Ireland. Fianna Fáil had long been the stronger party but lost to Fine Gael in 2011 with the country in the throes of a financial crisis and the bailout by the European Central Bank. Fine Gael then governed for the next nine years, overseeing Ireland’s economic resurgence.
Varadkar won the Fine Gael presidency in 2017, subsequently becoming prime minister. During his first tenure, he oversaw the Brexit negotiations that resulted in the Northern Ireland Protocol, and also called the referendum on abortion in 2018 that resulted in legalising the procedure in the country up to the twelfth week of pregnancy. His government also attempted to restrict peaceful protests and outreach efforts at abortion clinics.
Following the 2020 elections, the odd coalition proved the only way the country’s two main parties could maintain their historic dominance, as the increasingly leftist republican party Sinn Fein had made strident gains, garnering the highest percentage of first preference votes at 26.5% and increasing its representation in parliament by 15 seats.
Like its neighbour the UK, Ireland is facing a cost-of-living crisis that will dominate politics in the coming months. It is also keenly interested in resolving issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol, a Brexit measure that essentially puts the EU-UK border at Northern Ireland ports as a way to keep the Irish land border open. The protocol has become a point of contention as Unionists in Northern Ireland strongly oppose it and London wants to renegotiate that aspect of Brexit with Brussels, much to the consternation of the EU commission.
In his speech to the Dáil following his appointment as prime minister, Varadkar pledged to work towards Ireland’s energy independence through ‘renewable’ energy, to stand in solidarity with Ukraine, to address the country’s housing and economic troubles, and work for the strengthening of the Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol.
In a speech after his appointment, he said,
Ireland must once again become a place where it is possible to dream—to dream of home ownership, to dream of a better life, to dream of a better Ireland. A place where these dreams can be realised … We must work together to re-establish the Good Friday Agreement institutions in the north. We must set aside our differences, forgive past mistakes on all sides, and seek a new beginning in a new spirit of friendship and understanding.
If the coalition government disappoints the Irish electorate, Sinn Fein will likely surpass both main parties in the next elections, scheduled for 2025.
