Simon Harris on Thursday officially nominated himself to be the next leader of Fine Gael, the party that has been in power in Ireland since the resignation of Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and is the front-runner to succeed him in the absence of an announcement. opponent, reports AFP.

“I confirm that I will seek to become the next leader of Fine Gael,” the current higher education minister said in a statement carried by Irish media.

“I’m ready to work and serve,” he insisted to RTE, paying tribute to Leo Varadkar, who on Wednesday announced his surprise resignation from the government he leads in 2022 after a first term in office between 2017 and 2020.

“Today I am stepping down as president and leader of Fine Gael and will be stepping down as prime minister as soon as my successor is able to fill the role,” Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday.

Simon Harris is currently the favorite to become Ireland’s next prime minister, and at 37, he will become the youngest person to hold the position in the country’s history.

Several leaders of the centre-right party announced on Thursday that they would not run, including Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

Simon Harris also won the support of many members of his party, which is in a governing coalition with another centre-right party, Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party.

Under that process, candidates have until Monday to announce their candidacy before activists vote between April 2 and 4. The winner will be announced on April 5.

After thanking his supporters, Simon Harris said he wanted to bring “energy and enthusiasm” to his party’s leadership.

“I also want to bring my practical life experience,” added someone who entered politics at a very young age. In 2011, at the age of 24, he was elected a member of parliament, and since 2014 he has been working in the government. From 2016 to 2020, Harris was the Minister of Health.

“I really want to reconnect with our party across the country,” he added, as Leo Varadkar resigned after the failure of the government’s proposed referendum on March 8 to change references to women and the family in the Constitution.

In a referendum, the Irish people rejected the amendment to the Constitution by modernizing the wording on women and the family

Earlier this month, the Varadkar government suffered a crushing defeat in a constitutional amendment referendum.

Varadkar came under fire after the referendum, which proposed rewriting the 1937 Constitution in an attempt to change outdated references to the family and women.

Critics said the Prime Minister had rushed the debate in an attempt to “sneaky” hold a double referendum on International Women’s Day.

The electorate rejected the expansion of the concept of family beyond marriage to include so-called “long-term relationships” such as partnerships, and the elimination of the idea that the role of mothers is to carry out “domestic duties” in the family.