New Zealand's opposition party selects a new leader

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February 27, 2018 3:59 AM

In a push to counter the popularity and charisma of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s main opposition party elected a young lawmaker as its new leader Tuesday.

The vote, held behind closed doors by the lawmakers of the center-right National Party, follows the resignation of the party’s longtime leader, Bill English, after the elections in September.

The party failed to win a parliamentary majority, and a coalition led by Ardern’s center-left Labour Party formed the government.

The new opposition leader, Simon Bridges, the youngest of the contenders at 41, billed himself as the candidate offering a “generational change.” Five lawmakers ran for the post to lead the National Party’s 56 members in Parliament.

Paula Bennett will retain her role as deputy leader.

Bridges, a former prosecutor who cited his “young family” in interviews before the vote, will now lead the effort to defeat Ardern, 37, in New Zealand’s 2020 election.

Bridges was minister for transport and for economic development in the previous National-led government, and has represented the city of Tauranga since 2008. He is part Maori, and said he was the first of New Zealand’s indigenous people to lead the National Party.

Ardern, who announced in January that she is pregnant with her first child, due in June, rode to power on a wave of excitement about her youth and optimism, dubbed “Jacindamania” by the media.

At a news conference after the vote, Bridges promised to be “firm but fair” in holding the government to account, and said he would lay out a “clear and positive plan” for his “highly energized” party.

“Fine words are fine, but it’s actions that count,” he said. He spoke of Ardern’s “accidental, experimental” government.

The National Party’s election battle was a rare chance for it to refresh its leadership. English, a finance minister in National-led governments, took over the party in December 2016 when Prime Minister John Key stepped down while the party was still in power. Key had been prime minister since 2008 and the party’s leader since 2006.

The National Party looked set to win the 2017 election, with Labour lagging in the polls. But when the Labour leader, Andrew Little, resigned over the dismal numbers less than two months before the vote, Ardern took over and the party’s popularity surged.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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