Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand Wins Second Term

“We are living in an increasingly polarized world, a place where more and more people have lost the ability to see one another’s point of view. I hope that this election, New Zealand has shown that this is not who we are. That as a nation we can listen, and we can debate. After all, we are too small to lose sight of other people’s perspective. Elections aren’t always — [applause] Elections aren’t always great at bringing people together. But they also don’t need to tear one another apart. This has not been an ordinary election and it’s not an ordinary time. It’s been full of uncertainty and anxiety. And we set out to be an antidote to that. As a nation, we needed a plan for recovery, and so that is what we created. We needed an ongoing health response to the global pandemic to keep people safe, so that is what we’ve done. And we needed a team focused absolutely and entirely on New Zealand and Labour absolutely is.”