The world is not run from Davos by a secret global elite, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar is in Switzerland today for the annual gathering of world leaders and the super rich. 

“I know there are some people that believe it’s some form of world government and we’re all going off there to make decisions on behalf of the elites that secretly run the world,” he said. 

“I guarantee you if that were the case I’d go for the whole thing but I won’t be because I’ve other things to do.” 

TB3T9E Aerial view of Davos city with ski slopes in the Winter, Grisons, Switzerland

The event is often criticised as elitist and out of touch but An Taoiseach believes it is worth attending. 

“There is a busy programme of meetings and a busy programme of media engagements,” he said. 

“And the advantage of Davos, quite frankly, is that there are so many politicians, so many world leaders, so many business leaders in the one place for two or three days that it would be remiss not to be there. 

“I’ll be able to do 10 meetings, 15 meetings over the course of the next day and a half which would otherwise take weeks to organise.”   

Meetings have been scheduled with British Labour leader Keir Starmer, the leader of the Belarusian opposition and the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola.

Mr Varadkar also plans to meet senior representatives from Intel and Amazon.

Main image: Leo Varadkar