The Irish prime minister, the centrist Micheál Martin, resigned from his post on Saturday, handing over the leadership of the coalition government to the deputy prime minister, the Christian Democrat Leo Varadkar.
With this change of power, unprecedented in Ireland, the two great national parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael -rivals since the Civil War (1922-1923)- thus comply with the government agreement reached after the 2020 general elections, whose winner was the nationalist Sinn Féin party, the former political wing of the IRA.
Under this agreement, Martin will assume the position of Deputy Prime Minister and Varadkar will occupy the position of “Taoiseach” (Prime Minister), while the Government, which includes the Green Party, will also be slightly restructured to give continuity and stability to the coalition. until the elections scheduled for 2025.
The 62-year-old Fianna Fáil leader has handed in his resignation to the President of the Republic of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, who already expects 43-year-old Varadkar to nominate him for his new post at a ceremony scheduled for after 1:00 p.m. local authorities, following the investiture vote which will take place in the Dublin Lower House (Dáil).
Before arriving at the presidential palace, Martín declared in a video posted on his Twitter social network account that serving as “Taoiseach” was the “honor of my life.”
“I look forward to the second phase of this Government. We did a lot in the first phase, but, nevertheless, there is still a lot to be done, ”he advanced, referring specifically to the serious housing crisis that the country is going through. or the rising cost of living.
Martin leaves behind a legislature of just over two years and which was marked, above all, by the Covid-19 pandemic and by ‘Brexit’ (the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union), with the general balance that London’s health crisis and divorce administration from Brussels was a success.
With that image of a “trustworthy ruler”, Martín now assumes the position of deputy prime minister and, according to observers, he will also occupy the Foreign Relations portfolio, a position he held between 2008 and 2011.
In this area, it should strengthen diplomacy with the United Kingdom to guide the negotiations between London and Brussels on the ‘Brexit’ Protocol for Northern Ireland, an issue that has deteriorated relations between Ireland and the United Kingdom in recent years.
Source: TSF
