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New Zealand Prime Minister Ardern made a worldwide sensation with a rigorous crown policy. Now he appears to have won a historic victory in the parliamentary elections. An absolute majority of his party is emerging.
According to initial forecasts, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has won a second term in the general elections. After counting more than 50 percent of the votes cast, Ardern’s Liberal Labor Party even won an absolute majority of 65 out of 120 seats.
If this is confirmed, it would be the strongest electoral result of the party in decades. Labor could then rule without its former coalition partner, the Greens. Since a change in New Zealand’s electoral system in 1996, no party has so far achieved an absolute majority.
The Greens also posted gains. A commentator on New Zealand television spoke of a “considerable shift to the left.”
Conservatives threaten a bad result
The conservative national party of opposition leader Judith Collins suffered significant losses. According to preliminary results, he only has around 35 seats in parliament. That would be the worst result of the match in almost 20 years.
In the elections, voters were also allowed to vote on whether marijuana should be legalized and euthanasia allowed. According to polls, euthanasia is likely to be introduced, but marijuana is likely to be in short supply. The results of these surveys will not be published until the end of October.
Successful management of the crown crisis
During the election campaign, Prime Minister Ardern was sometimes greeted like a rock star: the shopping malls she appeared in could not contain the crowd. Its popularity also dates back to its successful crisis management in the corona pandemic.
Under his aegis, New Zealand succeeded in halting the spread of the virus, while the terror scenario of a second wave of infections becomes increasingly clear in Europe and other parts of the world. Due to an outbreak in August, Ardern had postponed the general election for a month.
But there were also flaws
Ardern gained worldwide admiration for his reaction to the attacks by an Australian right-wing extremist on two mosques in Christchurch, which left 51 dead in March 2019. The next day, he spoke to survivors and wore an Islamic headscarf in sign of solidarity.
But Ardern also suffered failures in his first term in office. The government’s promise to create affordable housing on a large scale, for example, has so far not been kept.
So far, Ardern has governed a tripartite coalition.
The now 40-year-old has been at the top of the government since 2017. He has ruled a coalition of Labor, the Greens and the small populist First New Zealand party, known for its anti-immigrant positions. Three years ago, the party had tipped the balance and, surprisingly, brought Ardern to power. Now she clearly lost.
In 2018, Ardern became the second head of government in the world to give birth to a child in office.
