In a planned change at the head of government in Ireland, former Prime Minister Michael Martin has resigned. The head of government of the conservative party Fianna Fail has formally submitted his resignation to Irish President Michael D. Higgins, the Irish broadcaster RTE reported.

Later, the former Vice Prime Minister Leo Varadkar was to be appointed head of government by the Fine Gael party, which was also conservative.

The coalition, which also includes the Irish Greens, had already agreed on this change at the beginning of their cooperation in 2020. With the planned replacement of the prime minister, some ministers are also changing their posts. The next elections in Ireland are scheduled for 2025 at the latest.

The formation of the conservative-Green coalition government in Ireland two years ago was considered historic. Before that, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail had alternated in government. Varadkar previously headed a Fine Gael government from 2017 to 2020, sanctioned by Martin's Fianna Fail.

The largest opposition party is currently the left-wing Sinn Fein, which is also the only party in the British province of Northern Ireland. For a long time, Sinn Fein was considered the political arm of the underground organization IRA, which fought at gunpoint during the civil war in Northern Ireland for a unification of the two parts of Ireland. In the meantime, the party has renounced violence and also carried out a generational change.

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