SIMON Harris, 37, set to become Ireland's youngest ever taoiseach (prime minister), will hope his social media skills and fresh face can save his party's flagging fortunes as elections loom.
Already dubbed by media the "TikTok Taoiseach" (pronounced Tee-shock), Harris beats the previous record holder, predecessor Leo Varadkar, who was 38 when he took the top job in 2017.
After Varadkar's shock resignation on Wednesday, Harris leapt from the blocks in the race for leader of the centre-right Fine Gael party and by default prime minister.
By Thursday lunchtime, he had secured endorsements by a majority of party colleagues, prompting rivals to rule themselves out, and ending the leadership contest before it had even begun.
With no other candidates expected to emerge before nominations close today, pundits described Harris's apparent uncontested procession to the leader-ship as a "coronation".
"I'm in, I'm ready to step up, and I'm ready to serve," he told the public broadcaster RTE's evening news programme after announcing his candidacy.
Harris' inevitable election as taoiseach when the Dail (Irish Parliament) returns from recess on April 9 crowns a meteoric ascent.
Born in 1986, he grew up in the small coastal town of Greystones near Dublin, the son of a taxi driver. He dropped out of a journalism and French college course in Dublin after one year to focus on an already promising political career.
He entered politics by campaigning for autism services for his autistic younger brother, later founding a charity.
He joined the youth branch of Fine Gael at 16 and quickly rose through the party ranks.
A county councillor aged 22, he was elected to Parliament at 24 in 2011, at the time the youngest member of parliament and titled Baby of the Dail.
He was appointed health minister in 2016 aged 29.
"In many ways, my career has been a bit odd. Life came at me a lot faster than I expected it to," he told Hot Press magazine in a 2022 interview.
He served as health minister for over four years, including during the Covid pandemic during which his communication skills were praised despite heavy criticism over nursing home deaths and occasional gaffes.
He can be an "awful old idiot at times" he said after remarking that Covid-19 refers to 18 previous coronaviruses rather than the year it first occurred.
He was also embroiled in controversies around new hospital projects while a threatened opposition no-confidence vote over overcrowding in wards led Varadkar to call an election in 2020 where Fine Gael slumped to third place.
A father of two and married to a cardiac nurse, Harris' prominence on social media, especially TikTok, has made him one of the most visible politicians in Ireland.
He has been higher education minister since 2020 and even critics concede he is a talented communicator.
With 1.4 million likes on TikTok, and hundreds of thousands of followers on X and Instagram, he posts content almost daily to his audience.
Some of his videos and remarks have been seen as trying too hard to appeal to the younger generation.
During one stormy parliamentary committee meeting, Harris told the group: "Chillax. I think everyone needs to take a step back here."
"All the young people know what chillax is," he said in Parliament the next day.
With his youth and slick communication skills, his opponents jibe that he is Leo 2.0, a continuation of a metropolitan style of politics that is out of touch with the wider electorate.
But for supporters, his enthusiasm could re-energise Fine Gael, which still trails third in polls 10 weeks before local and European Parliament elections, and within a year from a general election.
"He has huge energy and huge ambition," one party colleague told the Irish Times paper.
"He's cute, crafty and shrewd," said another.
The writer is from Agence France-Presse
