Varadkar returns as Irish leader in political job-share deal

LONDON — Leo Varadkar returned for a second term as Ireland’s prime minister on Saturday as part of a job-sharing deal made by the country’s centrist coalition government. Martin has served as Ireland’s leader, or taoiseach, since an election in 2020 that produced a historic coalition agreement between his Fianna Fáil party and Varadkar’s Fine Gael. He said it had been “the honor of a lifetime” to serve as taoiseach and he was “looking forward to the second phase of this government.” Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are both centrist parties, with a fierce rivalry stemming from their origins on opposite sides of Ireland’s civil war a century ago. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald voted against Varadkar’s selection, saying the coalition government was “out of touch, out of ideas and out of time.” Varadkar, 43, served as prime minister between 2017 and 2020 — the country’s youngest-ever leader and first openly gay prime minister.