2024-04-09 09:06:23
He is due to become this Tuesday, at 37, the youngest Prime Minister in the history of Ireland: Simon Harris has experienced a meteoric political rise and is counting on his mastery of social networks to restore “energy” to his party before a series of elections. The Irish Parliament must confirm Simon Harris as Prime Minister on Tuesday, following his election in March at the head of the center-right Fine Gael party.
He was the only candidate to succeed Prime Minister Leo Varadkar at the head of this party, who resigned on March 20 to everyone’s surprise, believing that he was no longer “the best person” to assume these functions. Simon Harris, who until now held the post of Minister of Higher Education, promised to provide “hard work, with blood, sweat and tears, day after day, with responsibility and humility”.
« Taoiseach’s TikTok »
He is already nicknamed in the media “TikTok Taoiseach” (a Gaelic word which means “chief” or “leader” and is pronounced “Tee-shock”) due to his intensive use of social networks. “I also want to bring my concrete life experience,” said the native of the coastal town of Greystones, near Dublin.
Son of a taxi driver and a school assistant, Simon Harris gave up finishing his studies in journalism and French at university to devote himself to politics at a very young age. He began by campaigning to improve the lot of autistic people, made aware by his brother suffering from Asperger’s syndrome, and joined the Fine Gael party when he was only 16 years old.
“Baby of the Dail”
He then quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a local elected official at 22, an MP at 24 – which earned him the nickname “baby of the Dail”, the Irish Parliament – then entered the government as Secretary of State for Finance. in 2014, at just 27 years old. “I know in many ways my career has been a bit strange. […] Life imposed itself on me much faster than I would have imagined,” he admitted during an interview with Hot Press magazine in 2022.
Appointed Minister of Health in 2016, a position he held for four years and notably at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, he was praised for his talent as a communicator but criticized for the number of deaths in retirement homes .
Millions of subscribers
Father of two children and married to a cardiology nurse, his daily presence on social networks and in particular on TikTok, where he collects more than a million “likes” on his publications, has made him one of the personalities most visible politicians in Ireland. However, some criticize him for doing too much to attract young voters.
During a heated debate in a parliamentary committee, he aroused disbelief by using the expression “Chillax” (contraction of “chill out”, relax, and “relax”) among his peers. Mocked the next day, he replied that “all young people know what ‘chillax’ means.”
Due to his age and his communication skills, his opponents have already nicknamed him “Leo 2.0”, a way of pointing out that he will only be a new version of the political style of the current leader, Leo Varadkar, which they consider disconnected from reality. But for his supporters, his enthusiasm could revitalize Fine Gael, in third position in the polls a few weeks before the local elections and for the European Parliament, and less than a year before the legislative elections.
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