In New Zealand, Chris Hipkins next Prime Minister after surprise resignation of Jacinda Adern

The Minister responsible for the response to the COVVI-19 should be formally designated on Sunday by the Labor Party management.

MO12345LEMONDE with AFP

The former New Zealand official of the fight against the COVVI-19 epidemic, Chris Hipkins, 44, was appointed by Labor Party deputies to replace Jacinda Ardern as Prime Minister, announced on Friday January 20 Political training in a press release.

m. Hipkins must still be formally designated on Sunday by the leadership of his party before being able to become the 41 e chief of the government of his country, after the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern on Thursday. The new Prime Minister will be responsible for leading his party to the general elections in October, for which he does not leave favorite, according to polls.

The action of Mr. Hipkins was greeted at the head of the ministry responsible for developing the response to the epidemic, in a country that has closed its borders in order to limit the risks of infection, and did not reopened in last August. Considered to be experienced, with more than fourteen years spent in Parliament, he admitted last year that people were enough of strict health restrictions, describing border closings as “difficult”. Minister of the Interior since June, he had previously held the portfolios of education and public services.

M Me ardern, 42, resigned Thursday, assuring that he had “no longer enough energy” to continue to govern after five and a half years in power. During her mandate, she was confronted with the epidemic of Covid-19, with a deadly volcanic eruption and at the worst attack never perpetrated in the country, the murder of fifty and a faithful Muslim in two mosques of Christchurch by a white supremacist in 2019.

/Media reports cited above.