New Zealand shifts right as voters punish ruling party

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has conceded his Labour party lost Saturday’s election, as voters punished the government and took the country rightwards nine months after his predecessor Jacinda Ardern suddenly resigned.

The rising cost of living dominated campaigning with voters New Zealanders ending six years of Labour Party rule, the latter half of which was dominated by the country’s strict response to the coronavirus pandemic that successfully kept infections low but battered the economy.

With 90% of votes counted on Saturday evening, the center-right National Party, led by former airline executive Christopher Luxon, had amassed around 40% of ballots, CNN affiliates RNZ and Newshub reported.

A dejected Hipkins told supporters that Labour did not have enough votes to form a government.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/13/asia/new-zealand-general-election-labour-national-intl-hnk/index.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Sad news.

[SamKnause]

2. They will be sorry.

The right is a destructive force, not a governing force.

[ColinC]

3. Fwiw

This seems to be one of the few left losses that were to the center right, not the far right. I think that’s progress for the world.

[rickford66]

4. The Left, Center and Right in NZ are not like ours.

Their Right is more like our Center. My left-leaning in-laws aren't as worried as we do after our right wing shifts.

[Delphinus]

5. Thank you

After reading the story, I was hoping this might be the case.

[peppertree]

6. +1

What you said is, in fact, true of most 1st-world democracies.

Today's GOP is the only major party in the entire developed world (and much of the developing) that meets all 14 criteria for fascism.

[Elessar Zappa]

9. That's somewhat true but

right wing European parties are moving further to the right all the time. Some of the mainstream parties in Europe engage in demonization of immigrants as bad or worse than our Republicans

[OnDoutside]

11. right wing, yes, but populist in general too.

[Lonestarblue]

7. So the former government saved their lives during Covid and voters decided to reward them by

voting them out of office for a right-wing government that will keep the country going during the next pandemic and see hundreds of thousands die.

[riversedge]

8. plus plus.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

10. "Give me freedom, or give me death!"

I guess 60% thought death was the best answer.

There's going to come a time when the only thing standing between a person and a virulent virus which causes certain death is a dose of vaccine. A lot of people have made their choice already -- for themselves and their progeny.

[wysi]

12. Idiots everywhere here

They voted to give me, a person in the top three percent of earners in New Zealand, a tax cut. And beneficiaries and disabled people are going to pay for it. Bravo, dumbasses.