Simon Harris has always been in a hurry politically. He organized his first political meeting when he was 16, then quit college before receiving a degree so he start his career, the BBC reports. He was a member of the Irish parliament at 24 and the nation's health minister at 29. "Life came at me a lot faster than I expected it to," Simon said in 2022. He has his next jump lined up, after Fine Gael elected him the party's leader on Sunday. That sets Harris up to become prime minister when parliament returns to session on April 9, per the Guardian, at age 37.
The vote will make Simon, now the higher education minister, the youngest taoiseach in Ireland's history. Leo Varadkar, who announced last week that he's stepping down, was 38 when he took office in 2017, per the BBC. In his victory speech, Harris said this is a "moment for Fine Gael to reconnect" with Ireland's people, per the AP. "I want this party to fight against populism and deliberate polarization," he said. Saying his is a "proudly pro-European party," Harris denounced Russia's invasion of Ukraine and urged an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. (More Ireland stories.)
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