The governing party of Ireland Fine Gael has named Leo Varadkar as its new leader on Friday, which means that the openly gay, 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant will succeed Enda Kenny as prime minister. Varadkar is expected to be voted in officially when parliament next sits on June 13. He will be the first gay PM of the once deeply Catholic country and the youngest person ever to hold the office. </s> Leo Varadkar is on course to succeed Enda Kenny as Ireland's prime minister after the ruling Fine Gael party elected the 38-year-old as leader.

The former social protection minister will be the Catholic country's first openly gay prime minister, its first of Indian descent and the youngest person ever to hold the office.

He received the publicly declared support of almost two-thirds of the parliamentary party, who account for 65 percent of the vote,

On his 36th birthday in January 2015 during an interview on Ireland's RTÉ Radio, Mr Varadkar spoke publicly for the first time about being gay.

He 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.'

The announcement made him the first openly gay cabinet member in Ireland.

Varadkar was a prominent advocate of the same-sex marriage referendum.

His partner, Matthew Barrett, is a doctor at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. </s> Ireland’s governing Fine Gael party on Friday elected Leo Varadkar, the gay son of an Indian immigrant, as its new leader and the country’s likely next prime minister.

Varadkar defeated rival Simon Coveney in a contest to replace Enda Kenny, who resigned last month.

“If my election as leader of Fine Gael today has shown anything, it is that prejudice has no hold on this republic,” Varadkar said after his victory was announced in Dublin.

Coveney won the votes of a majority of party members, but Varadkar was backed by most lawmakers and local representatives to give him victory under the centre-right party’s electoral college system.

He is highly likely to become prime minister in Ireland’s coalition government, although not immediately. Kenny will remain in place for a couple more weeks while Varadkar holds talks with other parties and independents propping up the Fine Gael-led government.

His confirmation as Taoiseach — Ireland’s prime minister — would come when the lower house of parliament resumes after a break on June 13.

At 38, Varadkar would be Ireland’s youngest prime minister, as well as the first from an ethnic-minority background and the first openly gay leader.

Varadkar was born in Dublin in 1979, the son of an Indian doctor and an Irish nurse. He came out publicly as gay in the run-up to a 2015 referendum that legalized same-sex marriage in Ireland.

If confirmed as prime minister, Varadkar will lead a country still emerging from the shadow of the 2008 global financial crisis, which hit the debt-fueled “Celtic Tiger” economy particularly hard.

He also will have to steer Ireland during complex divorce negotiations between Britain and the EU. Brexit has major implications for Ireland, the only EU country to share a land border with the United Kingdom.

Varadkar said he was “aware of the enormous challenges ahead. I’m ready for those challenges, as are we as a party.” </s> Leo Varadkar has been elected Ireland’s youngest Taoiseach ten years to the day after he first entered the Dail as a newly elected TD.

He was elected by 57 votes. There were 50 votes against and 45 abstentions.

Mr Varadkar said there is no greater honour for any Irish politician and was deeply honoured.

As he made his acceptance speech, during which his parents watched from the visitors’ gallery, he paid fulsome tribute to his immediate predecessor Enda Kenny.

Mr Kenny had not just made his political career possible, he said, but in bringing in marriage equality he had also made him an equal citizen. Mr Varadkar, 38, from Castleknock, is gay.

The new Taoiseach said the government he will lead will be neither right-wing nor left-wing and that he had no interest in fighting the political battles of the 1980s.

The new Irish government would be centrist, and European.

One of his first actions as Taoisech, he said, would be to telephone British Prime Minister Theresa May to express Irish sympathies for the North Kensington fire and to express solidarity with the people of London who had endured so much in recent weeks.

He said also that later this week he would meet Northern Ireland’s political parties and repeated that the Irish government has an important role as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.

His first official act was to propose suspension of the Dail for four hours while he travelled to Aras an Uachtarain to be officially appointed to the office by President Michael D Higgins.

In the meantime, discussions were to take place on his new, reshuffled cabinet. </s> The gay son of an Indian immigrant is set to become the next Prime Minister of Ireland.

Leo Varadkar has just been elected leader of Fine Gael and now has the job of holding together the socially conservative country's center-right coalition.

If he succeeds he will be the first openly gay Taoiseach - as Ireland’s prime minister is called - and also it's youngest at just 38.

It was on a Sunday morning in 2015 that Mr Varadkar, then Health Minister, told the country he was a gay man during a radio interview.

It was remarkable not just for being a milestone - he was the country's first gay minister - but for its timing, coming in the middle of a fractious national debate on Gay Marriage

Mr Varadkar, the son of an Indian immigrant doctor, will become only the fourth openly gay national leader in modern history.

While his politics would best be described as conservative, he tries to portray himself as beyond party politics and the face of a new, liberal and progressive Ireland.

Comparisons to leaders like France's Emmanuel Macron or Canada's Justin Trudeau are often made, by the Irish media and the excitable Mr Varadkar himself.

When the result of the referendum oh Gay Marriage was announced, the trained doctor declared: "To me this had the feeling of a social movement or a social revolution."

But like many of the modern liberal politicians to whom he is compared Mr Varadkar has a limit record of success in government.

Periods as both Transport Minister and Health Minister were marked, his critics say, by competence not reforming zeal.

But according to his ministerial colleague and supporter Joe McHugh, Mr Varadkar has brains, communication skills and a willingness to learn.

"He has a craving to try and understand things," he told the Irish News.

"No-one is going to know everything. And there is a humility there. He will accept that if he's successful.

"He will have that awareness, that emotional intelligence as some people call it, to know that he still has a lot to learn."

He is attacked by the left in Ireland's parliament as an austerity politician - who fails to connect with real peoples lives.

Mr Varadkar's promised a reform agenda - including a referendum on introducing a limited form of abortion- will wrestle with his history of fiery right wing criticism and the unstable coalition he must hold together.

With Ireland likely to play a key part in Britain's ongoing negotiations with EU over Brexit , Mr Varadkar may be unknown in the UK at the moment but he won't be for long. </s> Leo Varadkar was elected Irish Prime Minister on Wednesday, making the 38-year-old son of an Indian immigrant the first gay premier of the once-staunchly Catholic country and the youngest person to hold the office.

Despite inheriting Europe's fastest-growing economy, he will face immediate challenges in the shape of neighboring Britain's exit from the European Union, a political crisis in Northern Ireland and a housing crisis at home.

Varadkar succeeded Enda Kenny earlier this month as leader of the Fine Gael party. Colleagues pinned their hopes of an unprecedented third term on the straight-talking Varadkar, who they believe can widen their appeal in elections that may be triggered as soon as next year.

"Enda Kenny's leadership enabled me to become an equal citizen in my own country two short years ago and to aspire to hold this office, an aspiration I once thought was beyond my reach, at least if I chose to be myself," Varadkar said in reference to Ireland's 2015 vote to legalize gay marriage.

"The government I lead will not be one of left or right. The government I lead will be one of the new European center as we seek to build a Republic of opportunity, that is a Republic in which every citizen gets a fair go and in which every part of the country stands to share in our prosperity."

Varadkar's elevation marks another chapter in the social change that has swept through the country of 4.6 million people that only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993 and legalized divorce two years later.

"As the country's youngest holder of this office, he speaks for a new generation of Irish women and Irish men, he represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other," Kenny told parliament, nominating his successor.

However it is his policies that will attract more scrutiny at home with opponents warning that the former health, tourism and social protection minister, who first joined the center-right party aged 17, would nudge it further to the right.

While analysts expect few major policy shifts from Varadkar and his new cabinet, the new Fine Gael leader has hinted at some changes.

He has pledged to introduce a less ambitious debt reduction target than the one set by Kenny's government last year, and to lobby the EU for additional leeway to free up more funding for badly needed infrastructure projects.

On Brexit, he wants Northern Ireland, a British province, to remain in the EU's single market and retain access to as many EU programs as possible to ensure it secures a "soft" Brexit that he has said appears more likely following last week's British election.

Varadkar told parliament on Wednesday that Ireland would hold a referendum next year on liberalizing Ireland's abortion laws, currently among the most restrictive in Europe.

European Council President Donald Tusk, tweeting words of congratulations in the Irish language, assured Varadkar that his fellow EU leaders shared a "great sensitivity" about the challenge the island of Ireland faces in the Brexit talks.

Varadkar, who took his seat in parliament 10 years ago to the day on Wednesday, named Paschal Donohoe finance minister, replacing the retiring Michael Noonan. Donohoe will also retain his existing portfolio as public expenditure minister.

Donohoe, 42, has managed budgetary policy with Noonan for the last year and was previously transport minister where he successfully negotiated the sale of the state's 30 percent stake in former flag carrier Aer Lingus to IAG.

Varadkar also appointed his chief rival for the leadership, former housing minister Simon Coveney, as foreign minister. </s> When Leo Varadkar assumed power in Ireland on Wednesday, he blazed a trail of firsts: At 38 years old, the biracial son of an Indian immigrant father and Irish mother became the country's youngest-ever taoiseach, or prime minister.

He also became the first openly gay man elected to lead the Republic of Ireland, where homosexuality was illegal until just 24 years ago.

Now, as newly elected leader of the ruling Fine Gael party, Varadkar has delivered his first speech to Parliament and received his seal of office from the country's president, Michael D. Higgins.

"The government that I lead will not one of left or right, because those old divisions don't comprehend the political challenges of today," Varadkar told lawmakers Wednesday.

"So the government that I lead will be one of the new European center as we seek to build a republic of opportunity," he continued, "and that is a republic in which every citizen has a fair go and has the opportunity to succeed and in which every part of the country has the chance to share in our prosperity."

Despite Varadkar's firsts, Irish media and voters are "not obsessed about his sexuality or his racial origins," The Guardian's Henry McDonald tells NPR's Ari Shapiro. Rather, it's the center-right politician's policies that have been the subject of significant debate.

"Some people label him a Thatcherite," McDonald says. "They think he's a kind of a son of Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister — right of center, very pro-free market, you know, in the style of Thatcher and Ronald Reagan."

These rightward-leaning economic stances stand in contrast with his generally liberal positions on abortion rights and other social issues — and they drew criticism from Varadkar's rival for his party's leadership, Simon Coveney. Varadkar, who defeated Coveney earlier this month, appointed him the party's deputy on Tuesday.

Varadkar cemented his win Wednesday, with a confirmation parliamentary vote of 57 to 50, with 47 abstentions.

His predecessor, Enda Kenny, lauded the man he'd nominated as his replacement.

"As the country's youngest holder of this office, he speaks for a new generation of Irish women and Irish men," he said earlier this month, according to the BBC. "He represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other, an Ireland in which each person can fulfill their potential and live their dreams." </s> London: Leo Varadkar, a 38-year-old Indian-origin doctor, on Wednesday scripted history by becoming Ireland's youngest and the first openly gay prime minister of the Catholic-majority country, as he promised to build "a republic of opportunity".

Varadkar, the country's first Indian-origin premier, officially took over from Enda Kenny as Taoiseach, as the Irish prime ministerial title is known, after a parliamentary vote in Dublin confirmed him as the leader by 57 votes to 50, with 47 abstentions.

The former general physician, who is the son of an Irish nurse and a doctor from India, won the Fine Gael party leadership earlier this month. He has made his leadership rival Simon Coveney the deputy leader of the party.

Addressing the Dail (Irish parliament), after his election, Varadkar said, "I've been elected to lead but I promise to serve."

"The government that I lead will not be one of left or right because those old divisions don't comprehend the political challenges of today. The government I lead will be one of the new European centre as we seek to build a republic of opportunity," Varadkar asserted.

He then travelled to the president's residence, Aras an Uachtarain, where President Michael D Higgins gave him the seals of office to officially confirm his appointment.

Former Taoiseach Kenny nominated Varadkar to succeed him at the start of today's Dail proceedings, saying that he would carry out the role with integrity and skill.

"As the country's youngest holder of this office, he speaks for a new generation of Irish women and Irish men," he said.

"He (Varadkar) represents a modern, diverse and inclusive Ireland and speaks for them like no other, an Ireland in which each person can fulfil their potential and live their dreams," Kenny said.

After winning the party leadership earlier this month, Varadkar had said, "If my election shows anything it's that prejudice has no hold in this Republic."

"When my father travelled 5,000 miles to build a new home in Ireland, I doubt he ever dreamed his son would grow up to be its leader," he had said.

The Dublin-born son of Mumbai-born Ashok Varadkar and Irish mother Miriam, served as Ireland's welfare minister and had emerged as the most popular choice since he announced his candidacy after Kenny stepped down as prime minister earlier this year.

Varadkar qualified as a doctor from the prestigious Trinity College, Dublin, and was first elected as a councillor at the age of 24 and took a seat in the Dail in 2007.

He went up against housing minister Coveney in the leadership race, who bagged two-thirds of the party membership votes but lost out to the more popular candidate in the end.

Varadkar came out as a gay man in 2015, when Ireland became the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through popular vote.

In a coming-out speech he gave in a radio interview, he had 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."

His family originates from Varad in Maharashta's Sindhudurg district, and Leo Varadkar kept his Indian connect alive, completing an internship at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Mumbai.

His partner, Matthew Barrett, is also a doctor.

"Matt is just a very special person. Someone who is unconditionally on my side, which is always great. He is the kind of person who has made me a better person," Varadkar recently said.

The popular minister has campaigned for same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion laws.

He worked as a general practitioner (GP) before winning a seat in Parliament and has rapidly risen through the party ranks, holding several ministerial portfolios including minister for social protection and minister for transport, tourism and sports.

Fine Gael is Ireland's centre-right political party, seen as taking liberal positions on several social and economic issues. </s> Leo Varadkar is set to be elected the youngest ever Taoiseach today - with an even smaller majority than Enda Kenny.

He'll be nominated by the Dáil this lunchtime, and will announce the members of his new cabinet this evening.
Leo Varadkar becomes the first gay Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland.