‘LIBERAL VICTORY’ REPORTED AROUND THE WORLD

LEO VARADKAR’S election was yesterday heralded around the world as a victory for liberal Ireland.

The website of the New York Times headlined its story ‘Gay Lawmaker, Leo Varadkar, Is in Line to Be Ireland’s Prime Minister.’

Describing him as ‘a gay son of an Indian immigrant’, the article said the vote was ‘emblematic of Ireland’s transition to a more liberal society’.

The BBC and others also emphasised Mr Varadkar’s sexuality. In their ‘Leo Varadkar: Ireland set to have first gay PM’ piece, they also noted he ‘will also be the country’s youngest ever leader’.

The Times of India described the decision to elect the gay son of an Indian immigrant ‘a striking sign of the country’s rapid social change’.

They also described the ‘straight-talking’ Dubliner as ‘another face of modern-day Ireland’.

Time magazine’s headline was ‘Ireland’s Governing Party Elects First Openly Gay Leader as Next Possible Prime Minister’.

The piece said: ‘at 38, Varadkar will be Ireland’s youngest leader, as well as the first from an ethnic-minority background and the first openly gay leader.’

Just days before the result, news agency reuters hailed his likely election as a ‘social, generational shift’.

Reporter Padraic Halpin wrote: ‘Ireland is on the verge of a huge generational change in its political life a move that would give the once-staunchly Catholic country its first openly gay leader and its first of Asian immigrant descent.’