Barrier-breaking leader resigns in Ireland

Polls suggest support for party dwindling

LONDON — Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s barrier-breaking prime minister, said Wednesday that he would resign, days after a double referendum in which voters rejected constitutional changes his government had championed, and after years of waning public support for his political party, Fine Gael.

Varadkar, the gay son of an Irish nurse and a doctor who was born in Mumbai, India, became the country’s youngest-ever leader when he was named prime minister in 2017 at the age of 38, and in many ways he personified the rapidly changing identity of the modern Irish state.

But Fine Gael, which is ruling in coalition with two other parties, has struggled in recent years, and, before local and European elections in June, polls suggest public support for the party has flatlined.

“I know this will come as a surprise to many people and a disappointment to some, but I hope you will understand my decision,” Varadkar said at a news conference outside Leinster House in central Dublin. “I know that others will — how shall I put it? — cope with the news just fine,” he said. “That is the great thing about living in a democracy.”

Citing reasons both “personal and political,” Varadkar, 45, said he would step down from the party leadership effective immediately and would continue to serve as prime minister until Fine Gael elects a new leader before the Easter break. That post is expected to be filled when the government returns April 16.

Varadkar made the unexpected announcement shortly after a Cabinet meeting Wednesday morning, his voice at times cracking with emotion.

There had been no indication of his decision just days earlier when he visited the White House and met with President Biden for St. Patrick’s Day. But Varadkar has been unable to revive the fortunes of Fine Gael since it came third in the 2020 election, when the most votes went to Sinn Fein — the party that has historically called for uniting Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, with the Republic of Ireland. That result was damaging to the longstanding dominance of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

Eoin O’Malley, an associate professor in political science at Dublin City University, said that while Varadkar’s announcement was surprising, the party hadn’t been in a strong position politically for some time.

“This is a politician who is going out on a low, in some ways,” O’Malley said, pointing to Varadkar’s own resignation speech as evidence of that. “There’s a real sense of a party that is exhausted.”

In the past few months, about one-third of Fine Gael’s members of parliament have announced that they’re retiring from politics before the 2025 election.

And while there is no clear successor waiting in the wings, Varadkar may have decided to resign because he believes “a younger, more vibrant leader might be the best chance for that party to try and present a new picture,” O’Malley added.