Government: New Zealand: Conservative government is in place – populists are there

0

Government
New Zealand: Conservative government is in place – populists are there

Christopher Luxon is leader of the New Zealand National Party. photo

© Dom Thomas/AAP/dpa

Multimillionaire Christopher Luxon emerged as the election winner in New Zealand and has agreed on a three-party alliance – with the right-wing liberal ACT and the anti-immigrant NZ First.

New Zealand gets a conservative government with participation from the populist New Zealand First party. Six weeks after the general election, the election winner – the National Party of multimillionaire Christopher Luxon – agreed on a three-party alliance with the right-wing liberal ACT and NZ First, known for its anti-immigrant positions. The Pacific state had been governed by the social democratic Labor Party for the past six years, initially under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and, after her surprising resignation in January, by Chris Hipkins.

Luxon (53) will be the next prime minister of the Pacific state. He is scheduled to be sworn in on Monday. According to the deal, NZ First leader Winston Peters will serve as deputy leader for the first 18 months of the three-year term and will then be replaced by ACT leader David Seymour, coalition partners announced on Friday. Peters will also become Foreign Minister.

Together, the parties have 67 seats in the 122-member parliament. The National Party and ACT alone only achieved 59 seats, falling short of the required majority. The agreement was preceded by “long, difficult and complicated discussions,” emphasized Peters (78). The National Party particularly scored points in the election campaign with promises of tax cuts, while New Zealand First particularly attracted attention with slogans against immigrants.

dpa

#Subjects

source site-3