Ireland's Woke Prime Minister Announces "Bolt Out of the Blue" Resignation

He resigns in disgrace.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland's first openly gay taoiseach, or prime minister, said Wednesday that he would step down -- a shocking move that he said was for both "personal and political" reasons.

Varadkar, who became Ireland's youngest taoiseach in 2017, said he would also relinquish his leadership of the center-right Fine Gael party, which forms a ruling coalition government along with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

"I'm proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place," he told reporters gathered outside government buildings in Dublin.

Sounding emotional, he said there was no "real reason" behind his decision and he "had nothing else lined up."

"I have nothing in mind," he added. "I have no definite personal or political plans."

A senior Irish official told NBC News that the announcement would be "a bolt from the blue for the Irish public," which "throws everything up in the air." The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, added that Varadkar, who trained as a physician, "didn't see a lifetime in politics."

Varadkar's departure, which comes less than a week after he met with President Joe Biden at the White House before St. Patrick's Day, will not automatically trigger an election.

Despite NBC "News" making a mystery of this sudden resignation, Ed Morrissey opines that the explanation is simple: The woke gay PM pushed forward two constitutional amendments to redefine the family and rebut gender stereotypes and the Irish public stood up and finally said "NO."

The leftwing propaganda site The Guardian agrees:

Varadkar said his reasons for stepping down were "mainly political" but did not elaborate on what they were. Earlier this month, he was widely blamed for a crushing twin defeat at the ballot box, including the biggest ever referendum loss by an Irish government.

The ruling coalition had proposed rewording the 1937 constitution to change outdated references to family and women. Critics said Varadkar had rushed the debate in a "gimmicky" effort to hold double referendums on International Women's Day, and accused him of presiding over "incoherent messaging".

Voters rejected the family referendum, with 67% voting no, and buried the other proposal, which related to women's care-giving role, in an even bigger landslide of 74%. Varadkar later accepted some responsibility, saying: "There are a lot of people who got this wrong and I am certainly one of them."

Until Wednesday's resignation, however, the political fallout from the debacle had widely been expected to be limited. Varadkar has also faced increasing discontent within Fine Gael, with 10 of its members of the Dáil Éireann -- almost a third of the party's total -- announcing they will not stand again at the next election, which must be called by early 2025.

Fine Gael has lost five recent byelections, prompting some to see Varadkar as an electoral liability. "His legacy will be that of an electoral loser," Eoin O'Malley, a political scientist at Dublin City University, told Agence France-Presse. "He promised to be a good communicator, but it turned out he was bad at it. He had no clear agenda, and delivered little."

posted by Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:28 PM

| Access Comments