Simon Harris elected as Ireland's new and youngest Prime Minister

Irish lawmaker Simon Harris was elected as Ireland's new Prime Minister by a vote in parliament on Tuesday, becoming the country's youngest premier after openly gay and Indian-origin Leo Varadkar announced a surprise resignation last month. Harris will now take over as the head of Ireland's three-party coalition government led by the centre-right Fine Gael party and was already poised to replace Varadkar.

The 37-year-old Harris, who has been the coalition government's further and higher education minister, was the only candidate to put his name forward to succeed Varadkar, who had been Ireland's previous youngest prime minister, or what Ireland calls its taoiseach. Varadkar announced his resignation on March 20 due to "personal and political reasons" and said he had no future plans, apart from remaining in parliament as a backbench



lawmaker.

Harris was formally appointed to the post by President Michael D Higgins in a ceremony at the president's official residence in Dublin. Lawmakers in the Dáil, the lower house of Ireland's parliament, confirmed Harris as taoiseach, or prime minister, by an 88-69 vote. He now faces challenges including a strained health service, soaring housing costs and an exodus of Fine Gael lawmakers, more than 10 of whom have said they will not run for reelection.

“I commit to doing everything that I can to honour the trust that you have placed in me today,” Harris said. “As taoiseach I want to bring new ideas, a new energy and a new empathy to public life". Harris was first elected to parliament at 24 and has been nicknamed the “TikTok taoiseach” – pronounced TEA-shock -- because of his fondness for communicating on social media.