The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Ireland’s youngest PM ascends post as his party faces stagnation in polls
A JOB had come up as a parliamentary assistant to an Irish senator, and Harris, an ambitious 20-year-old from a coastal town in County Wicklow, south of Dublin, saw “an opportunity to try and make a difference,” he later told Hot Press, a Dublinbased magazine.
He never looked back. On Tuesday afternoon, at 37, he became the Republic of Ireland’s youngest ever head of government, the culmination of a swift political rise to a post he has long aspired to.
Speaking in front of the
Parliament shortly after he was confirmed in the role, Harris said he accepted “this new role in a spirit of humility, ready for the challenge, and full of energy and determination about what can be achieved.”
“He’s always been hungry for this role,” said David Farrell, a professor of politics at University College Dublin, noting that although Harris was young, he was not lacking in political experience. “His career has been short, but it’s been meteoric.”
But Harris reached the top at a moment when his center-right party, Fine Gael, has stagnated in the polls. And unless he can revive its fortunes, his time as premier may also be short-lived.
By the end of March 2025, Ireland will hold a general election that could see Sinn Fein, the Irish left-wing nationalist party that won the popular vote in 2020, garner enough seats to form a government. Support for traditional parties has waned in the wake of a cost of living crisis and a severe housing shortage.
Harris was propelled to the leadership of Fine Gael by the surprise resignation of his predecessor, Leo Varadkar, last month. The party governs Ireland in coalition with two others, and Harris became taoiseach (pronounced Tee-shock), or prime minister because of a quirk of the coalition arrangement rather than a reflection of any national public endorsement.
Supporters say Harris — seen by many as an energetic and devoted politician — is up for the challenge of steering the government at a difficult moment. The senator who hired the 20-yearold Harris in 2008, Frances Fitzgerald, a Fine Gael member of the European Parliament, was the leader of the opposition in the upper house of Ireland’s legislature at the time. She became his longtime mentor.
“I think the reason that he has gone so far over such a relatively short period is that he has always believed in the power of politics,” she said, adding: “He doesn’t necessarily do the obvious. What I admire most is that he has the courage to go with his gut.”
Harris has already been nicknamed the Tiktok Taoiseach because of his enthusiastic posting on the social video app. His account has earned nearly 2 million likes since he started it in 2021. the millennial Harris has long embracedhis youth as a selling point, analysts say.
The new premier will face steep challenges as he leads his party into local and European elections in June, and a general election next year.
Polls suggest that Fine Gael’s appeal has dropped further since 2020 as the coalition has faced growing criticism over a housing shortage and a backlash over immigration.