Simon Harris will become the youngest Prime Minister

At 37, he is set to become Ireland’s youngest Prime Minister. Simon Harris has experienced a meteoric political rise and is counting on his mastery of social networks to give back. “energy” to his party before the series of elections. Simon Harris was elected on Sunday to lead Ireland’s centre-right Fine Gael party.

The party’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, who resigned on Wednesday, surprising everyone, believed he was no more. “best person” To discharge his duties. Simon Harris, who previously served as higher education minister, is expected to be named prime minister by the Irish parliament on April 9, replacing the current head of government, who was 38. He narrowly broke the record he had set when he assumed the post. No “Taoiseach”The official title of the Irish Prime Minister.

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Already nicknamed in the media “TikTok Taoiseach” (which is pronounced “T-Shock”) due to its intensive use of social networks, Simon Harris promised to bring “Energy and Enthusiasm” During his candidacy announcement on Thursday. “I also want to bring concrete experience to my life”Added this native to the coast of Greystones, near Dublin.

French studies

The son of a taxi driver and a school assistant, Simon Harris left university studying journalism and French to devote himself to politics at a very young age. He started a campaign to improve many autistic people, his brother awakened people suffering from Asperger’s syndrome and joined the party. Fine gal When he was only 16 years old. He then quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a local elected official at 22 and a deputy at 24 – earning him the nickname “Dale Baby”Irish Parliament – then entered government as Financial Secretary in 2014, aged just 27.

“I know in many ways my career has been a bit strange… Life has come at me much faster than I could have imagined.”He admitted during an interview with the magazine Hot press In 2022. Appointed health minister in 2016, a post he held for four years, he has been praised for his talent for conversation, especially at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, but criticized for the number of deaths in retirement homes. His occasional mistakes.

So he admitted to be “stupid” Falsely claiming that Covid-19 was the 19th pandemic in the series, when the number refers to the year of its emergence.

Increase presence on social networks

Father of two children and married to a cardiology nurse, his daily presence on social networks and especially on TikTok, where he collects more than a million “like” His publications, made him one of the most visible political figures in Ireland. However, some criticize him for overdoing it to attract young voters.

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During a heated debate in a parliamentary committee, he used the expression to arouse disbelief “Chillex” (a contraction of “relax”Relax, and “relax”) among his peers. The next day scoffed, he replied “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 it will be a new version of the current leader’s political style which they consider disconnected from reality.

But his enthusiasm for his supporters can be rekindled Fine galTen weeks before local elections and the European Parliament, and third in the polls a year before legislative elections.