Vaughan Gething from Wales is the first black head of government in Europe

Vaughan Gething became the first black person to lead a national government in Europe on Thursday, a day after he was elected first minister of Wales.

Speaking to the Welsh Parliament, Mr Gething, who was born in Zambia, noted the historic nature of his election in a country where almost 94 percent of the approximately three million inhabitants are whitegovernment data shows.

“It is a matter of pride, I believe, for a modern Wales, but also a huge responsibility for me and one that I do not take lightly,” he said. “But today we can also expect a depressingly familiar pattern to emerge with abuse on social media, racist statements disguised with polite language, and people questioning my motives. And yes, they will still question or deny my nationality, while others will wonder why I am playing the race card.”

To those critics, Mr Gething said: ‘It’s very easy to not care about your identity when your own identity has never been questioned or held back. I believe that the Wales of today and tomorrow will belong to all those decent people who recognize that our parliament and government should look like our country.”

Gething, 50, was narrowly elected leader of Wales’ ruling Labor party this week and was subsequently elected first minister by the Senedd. He also received approval from King Charles III, a ceremonial administrative step.

Mr Gething’s appointment as First Minister of Wales means that for the first time none of the UK’s four governments will be led by a white man. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Great Britain is of Indian descent, and Humza Yousaf, the Prime Minister of Scotland, is of Pakistani descent. Michelle O’Neill became First Minister of Northern Ireland last month.

Mr Sunak’s government oversees the running of the civil service and government agencies and makes decisions for England, but some responsibilities are left to elected officials in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – the result of a decades-long process called devolution .

Mr. Gething did that spent much of his life in the politics. He became active in the Welsh Labor Party at the age of 17 and campaigned unsuccessfully in the 1992 general election. He became a trade union lawyer and eventually a partner at trade union firm Thompsons. He was also the first black person – and the youngest – to become president of the Wales Trades Union Congress, a consortium of dozens of trade unions.

In 2011, he became the first black minister to serve in one of the devolved nations of the United Kingdom and has since held various positions in the Welsh Parliament, including as Secretary of State for the Economy and Secretary of State for Health during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Gething faced criticism for accepting 200,000 pounds (about $253,000) in donations for his leadership campaign from a recycling company run by a man found guilty of illegal dumping of waste on conservation land in South Wales. Asked about the donations in a BBC debate, he said they had been “checked and properly submitted to the Electoral Commission and declared to the Senedd.” The Guardian reported this.

In his speech on Thursday, Mr Gething said he wanted Wales to “thrive in the sunshine that hope and social justice can bring to all of us, regardless of our background, what we look like or who we love.”

He added: “We can embrace new optimism and new ambition for a fairer Wales, built by all of us.”