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TThe mood at the New Zealand Green Party electoral headquarters was triumphant, almost as if the party had won the election outright. The election result was everything they expected and perhaps more than they expected.
Just a few weeks ago, polls had the party below the 5% threshold that would trigger proportional representation and hand it over to parliament if none of its candidates won a seat in the electorate.
His best chance for the latter was his Auckland Central candidate Chlöe Swarbrick, but she was third in the polls.
In the evening, voters returned to the party, handing it 7.6% of the party’s votes and Swarbrick a narrow victory in a seat for National, the main opposition party. It was the electorate’s first victory for a green candidate since 1999.
Although it is well below the peak of its popularity (the Greens obtained 11% of the party’s votes in 2011), the jubilation among the party’s supporters was bordered by people who feared the gallows but ended with a bouquet of flowers. .
“We are stronger at the end of our first term in office than at the beginning,” co-leader James Shaw told the crowd. “We defy the odds. We made history. “
He is expected to add at least two deputies to the eight he won in previous elections.
“It’s great, it’s a vote for the youth of New Zealand,” said Suzanne Kendrick, faithful to Green. “Look at the room: young, vibrant and interesting people. It’s time to move on from middle-aged people trying to hold onto the past.
“And it is a victory for the whole world, for liberal democracy, for those who believe in that type of government and also in the environment.”
While Labor could rule alone, Shaw is confident that the Greens will be included to draw on the specific expertise of their ministers, strengthen the majority of the new government and build their partnership for the future.
“We want to win again in 2023,” Shaw told The Guardian.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declined to comment on whether she would invite the Greens to the government, but said she had already spoken with co-leader James Shaw and that talks would move “quickly” over the next several weeks.
Ardern said it would take two to three weeks for a government to be declared, because there are still half a million special votes to count.
The Greens have been around since 1990. Some of its members became MPs in the early 1990s as part of the Alianza party, a merger of four small parties, but entered parliament as an independent party in 1999 when it won more than 5%. of the party’s votes.
Since then, the party has consistently garnered the majority of the minority party vote and became part of a government for the first time in 2017 after committing to providing confidence and support for the Labor-NZ First coalition.
The Greens are focused on both social equity and the environment and have pushed for New Zealand to become carbon neutral by 2050 and reduce inequality by increasing benefits and funding for other social services.
Like many countries, New Zealand has responded to Covid-19 by stimulating the economy through massive spending, which has wiped out its budget surplus.
The Greens want to increase tax collection by introducing a “wealth tax,” but Ardern has stated that this will not happen in a government she leads.
