And in New Zealand, with Christopher Luxon, the right is preparing to return to power
After the legislative elections on Saturday 14 October, New Zealanders have two certainties: power will shift to the right after six years of Labor rule, and their next prime minister will be the leader of the National Party, which came first in the vote. Christopher Luxon. When will he be able to form a government? Nobody knows him.
It should all depend on the roughly 20% of ballots that have yet to be counted. If the initial results are confirmed, the fifty-year-old should receive 50 seats for his party, which, along with the 11 MPs of his libertarian ally, ACT New Zealand, would give him a slim majority in the unicameral parliament. If he lacks elected officials, he will also have to reach an agreement with Winston Peters, head of the populist New Zealand First party. Experienced in political negotiations having decided the results of elections in the archipelago three times, the latter can take all his time before concluding a government agreement.
On the labor side, the excitement did not last long. Chris Hipkins, who was appointed Prime Minister in January, after the shock resignation of Jacinda Ardern, conceded his heavy defeat without delay. According to the first results, the center left is expected to lose 31 of its 65 deputies.
Tough start
“The National Party will work to lower the cost of living, restore law and order, provide better health care and educate our children so they can live the lives they dream of.”On Saturday evening, in front of a cheering crowd, Christopher Luxon promised that everything seemed to have worked out.
After graduating in business administration, he rose through the ranks of British-Dutch multinational Unilever overseas before returning to his home country to take charge of Air New Zealand in 2012. In 2019, the former CEO, who had worked meticulously from a young age to achieve his goals as Checking the boxes on his to-do list, to give substance to his political ambitions. With great success. In 2020, he was elected as a representative for the first time. The following year, he took over as president of the National Party and was now in a position to form a government despite a difficult start.
It must be said that this father of two had difficulty attracting voters who were skeptical of his image as a millionaire president. “He has a very entrepreneurial language. He spent more than sixteen years abroad pursuing his career. He does not look like the usual politicians and even less like the average person.”, summarizes Oliver Hartwich, Director of the New Zealand Initiative Research Centre. Christopher Luxon is also a practicing Christian, and has raised concerns due to his location “Professional life”So much so that he had to commit to not restricting access to abortion.
You have 50% of this article to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.