Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern scored a landslide victory in New Zealand’s general election and said she would use her mandate to rebuild an economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic and address social inequality.
“There is a lot of work to be done over the next three years,” he told fans on Saturday night in Auckland. “We are going to rebuild better from the Covid crisis. We have a mandate to accelerate our response and our recovery. “
With 87% of the votes counted, Ardern’s Labor Party had 49% support, heading for its highest percentage of votes since the 1930s, after a large shift to the left in many urban and provincial electorates. The opposition National Party fell to 27%, its worst performance since 2002.
Ardern, 40, has conquered New Zealand’s sacred political center ground with a combination of empathetic leadership and skillful crisis management that has also earned him fame abroad. His successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated those strengths, drowning out criticism that he has failed to deliver on some key promises during his first term in office.
Ardern said he would rule for all New Zealanders and declined to say whether he would invite the Green Party into his government until final results are obtained. The Greens obtained 7.6% of the votes.
The landslide victory will give Ardern more leeway to deliver on the transformative government she promised when she came to power three years ago, particularly if the Greens pressure her to be more progressive on issues like poverty and climate change. Still, he will be wary of alienating centrist voters with higher social spending at a time when debt is mounting due to the government’s pandemic response.
Voters are rewarding Ardern for crushing community transmission of Covid-19 as countries like the UK, US and even neighboring Australia still struggle to contain the virus.
National in disarray
The main leader of the opposition National Party, Judith Collins, admitted defeat in an earlier speech and said she had spoken to Ardern to congratulate her.
Collins, who fought to gain ground against the popular Ardern during the campaign, pointed to the economic challenges the nation faces as it recovers from the pandemic.
“New Zealand is facing a difficult economic journey and is going to need better fiscal policy than we have seen so far,” he said.
National has been in disarray, changed leaders twice this year and suffered a series of scandals that eroded its claim to be a stronger team than Labor and a better economic manager.
On the contrary, Ardern has been harassed by crowds on the election campaign in a rerun of the “Jacinda-mania” that was first seen in 2017.
In the battle against Covid, Ardern stood alone among her Western peers in pursuit of an explicit takedown strategy and imposed one of the strictest national lockdowns in the world.
The economy suffered its most severe contraction since the Great Depression, falling 12.2% in the second quarter, but the lockdown eliminated the spread of the virus in the community and restrictions were lifted earlier than in many other countries. After more than 100 days without community transmission, an outbreak broke out in the largest city of Auckland, but it was also quickly eliminated.
New Zealand has gone three weeks without any cases in the community, and all new infections are limited to returning foreign travelers and undergoing mandatory quarantine. The nation has recorded only 25 deaths from coronavirus.
The challenges that lie ahead are enormous. The border remains closed to foreigners, paralyzing the key tourism industry, and unemployment is forecast to rise.
Workers are committing massive spending on infrastructure to boost the economy and have pledged to levy a higher income tax rate above NZ $ 180,000 ($ 120,000) a year to raise more revenue. Ardern has ruled out implementing the Greens’ proposed wealth tax.
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