prime minister
Government in New Zealand: Hipkins succeeds Arderns
Jacinda Ardern (l) will soon hand over the baton to Chris Hipkins. photo
© Ben Mckay/AAP/dpa
It has been formally confirmed that the outgoing New Zealand Prime Minister will be succeeded by Chris Hipkins. His deputy has also been determined.
Former New Zealand Police and Education Minister Chris Hipkins is to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The 44-year-old was formally confirmed by a Labor Party committee on Sunday, along with his future deputy Carmel Sepuloni, who is of Pacific Islander descent. He will be sworn in as the new prime minister on Wednesday, Hipkins said at a press conference on Sunday.
The 42-year-old Ardern, who has ruled the country since 2017, surprisingly announced her retirement on Thursday and said that she lacked the strength to continue. “I know what it takes for this job and I know I don’t have enough in the tank anymore,” she said through tears. When she took office, she was the youngest prime minister in the world at the time. In 2018, she became the first head of government in decades to become a mother while in office.
Ardern had a strict zero-Covid policy during the Corona pandemic and closed New Zealand’s borders in March 2020. The country only fully opened up again in July 2022. Hipkins was the minister responsible for containing the pandemic. Now he is to lead the country in the elections scheduled for October 14 as the 41st head of government.
Hipkins’ deputy-designate Sepuloni was born in New Zealand in 1977 to a Pacific Islander immigrant father and a New Zealander mother of European descent. She will now be the first Pacific Islander representative to hold this senior government position. “I want to highlight the importance to our Pasifika community. I’m proudly Samoan, Tongan and New Zealand-European, and I represent generations of New Zealanders of mixed heritage,” she said Sunday.