Leo Varadkar is set to become the Republic of Ireland’s next taoiseach (prime minister).
Varadkar, 38, will become the first gay taoiseach and will also be the country’s youngest ever leader.
Varadkar beat his rival, Housing Minister Simon Coveney, with 60% of the votes to lead Fine Gael – the biggest party in the coalition government, BBC reports.
Following the announcement on Friday evening, the new Fine Gael leader 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.
“Any child growing up in Ireland now, I hope, looks at me and my unlikely story and my background, and everything about me, and perhaps says to themselves, that there is no office in this state that I can’t aspire to, nothing that they can’t do if they believe in themselves.
“But our job as a party is to make sure that every person in our country actually has those opportunities, because we don’t have equality of opportunity in this country, there is great inequality of opportunity in this country, but as a party I want to dedicate ourselves to building a republic of opportunity.”
Omoleye Omoruyi… an apprentice web/game developer, novelist, sensitive to happenings in the world. Meet him @Lord_rickie on Twitter/Instagram
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