Former New Zealand Covid-19 official Chris Hipkins, 44, has been nominated by Labor MPs to replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, the party announced in a statement on Friday.
Chris Hipkins has yet to be formally appointed by his party leaders on Sunday before he can become his country’s 41st prime minister, following Jacinda Ardern’s surprise resignation on Thursday.
The new head of government will be in charge of leading his party in the October general elections, for which he is not a favourite, according to the polls.
The performance of Chris Hipkins has been acclaimed at the head of the ministry in charge of developing the response to the pandemic, in a country that closed its borders to limit the risk of contagion and reopened them only last August.
Considered seasoned with more than 14 years in parliament, he admitted last year that people were fed up with harsh pandemic restrictions, describing border closures as “difficult.”
Minister of the Interior since June, he had previously held the portfolios of Education and Public Services.
Jacinda Ardern, 42, resigned on Thursday, saying she “no longer has enough energy” to continue governing after five and a half years in power. During her tenure, she faced the Covid-19 pandemic, a deadly volcanic eruption and the country’s worst attack, the 2019 murder of 51 Muslim worshipers at two Christchurch mosques by a white supremacist.
Source: BFM TV
