As expected, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and ‘her’ Labor Party achieved the absolute majority in this weekend’s elections – much at the expense of how they handled the Covid-19 pandemic – but are ready to try to form a coalition government.
The Labor Party can govern itself after winning an historic 64 seats out of 120, and the prime minister said it would take two to three weeks to officially form the new government, after talks with potential coalition partners. “I have been a consensus builder,” he said, quoted by the country’s newspapers.
Its main opponent, the leader of the National Party Judith Collins, said this Sunday that it would continue to command the formation, but it is not clear that the party wants to maintain it, after the defeat – that for all reason is also historical.
Green Party co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson confirmed that they had maintained contacts with Ardern, with whom they were affiliated in the previous government. The party won 10 seats in parliament – two more than it had – and hopes to be invited to join the new government.
Shaw is confident that the Greens will be included in the executive, to strengthen the majority of the new government. “We want to win again in 2023,” said Shaw. “We are stronger at the end of our first term in government than we were at the beginning.”
But political analysts in New Zealand say the labor leader must take precautions: her leadership’s expectations are now so high that it will be difficult for her not to disappoint voters. The party is also full of new, inexperienced parliamentarians, with only a handful of veterans available to manage the important portfolios.
In September, New Zealand officially entered a recession, as a result of several confinements and closed borders. The tourism industry, construction and horticulture have suffered significant strikes. Therefore, one of the biggest problems facing the country is that of economic recovery and this will be the great test of the Prime Minister’s leadership.
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