New Zealand’s former Covid-19 pandemic strategy officer Chris Hipkins says “able to deliver” after being tapped to replace Jacinda Ardern.
Former head of New Zealand’s Covid-19 pandemic strategy, Chris Hipkins, said today he was “able to deliver” after being chosen to replace Jacinda Ardern, who resigned this week as prime minister. The only candidate to succeed Ardern, Chris Hipkins, 44, will be formally named leader of the Labor Party on Sunday, before becoming the country’s 41st prime minister.
“Labor Party caucus meets at 1pm on Sunday [19:00 de hoje em Lisboa] to validate the nomination and confirm Chris Hipkins as party leader,” said Labor member Duncan Webb. Hipkins will then serve as Prime Minister at least until the October 14 general election.
“I like to think that I am a decisive person capable of getting things done,” the official told reporters outside parliament in Wellington, the country’s capital. Chris Hipkins currently serves as the Minister for Home Affairs, Education and Public Services.
He was first elected to parliament in 2008 and appointed Minister with the Covid-19 portfolio in November 2020.
Jacinda Ardern announced this Thursday her resignation as head of government, calling elections for October 14. “I gave everything to be prime minister, but it also cost me a lot,” she said.
The outgoing prime minister had been chosen to lead the country at just 37 years old, following the surprise resignation of center-right leader John Key, making him New Zealand’s youngest prime minister since 1856 and a symbol of progressivism with strong left-wing ideas. .
After winning a second term, thanks to the landslide victory of the Labor Party in the 2020 parliamentary elections, Ardern has seen his popularity plummet in recent years, attributed to various causes: deteriorating economic situation, declining confidence in his Government, resurgence of the conservative opposition. In recent months, the prime minister could no longer hide her irritation with the fierce opposition from the right and signs of political wear and tear began to show.
Born in 1980 in Hamilton, south of Auckland, Jacinda Ardern says it was the poverty she witnessed in the North Island hinterland that helped shape her left-wing beliefs.
Source: Observadora
