Chris Hipkins was sworn in as New Zealand’s 41st prime minister on Wednesday, following Jacinda Ardern’s unexpected resignation last week.
Hipkins, 44, promised action focused on the economy and what he described as the “inflation pandemic.”
He will have less than nine months before the general election, when polls put his Labor party behind the Conservatives.
New Zealand Governor General Cindy Kiro presided over the ceremony.
Hipkins was Minister for Education and Police under Jacinda Ardern. He rose to public prominence during the novel coronavirus pandemic, when he assumed the role of crisis manager. But he, like other liberals, was in the shadow of Ardern, who became a global icon of the political left and exemplified a new kind of leadership.
Ardern made his last public appearance as head of government on Tuesday and said what he will miss most is the people, because they were “the joy of work.”
New Zealand’s head of state is King Charles III of the United Kingdom, and Kiro is his representative in New Zealand, but his relations with the British monarchy are largely symbolic.
Source: TSF
