New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Monday (20) that he received the support of National Party parliamentarians after calling a motion of confidence in his leadership, following days of speculation that some party members were seeking to replace him.
“I presented a formal motion of confidence in my leadership and that motion was approved,” Luxon said in a prepared statement he read after a party meeting.
“I have the support of my bench, of which I am leader. The bench responded clearly and decisively, supporting my leadership, and this matter is closed,” he added.
After reading the statement, he left the room and refused to answer questions. No details were released on whether the support vote was unanimous or what the majority was.
Luxon leads the National Party, the largest party in New Zealand’s three-party governing coalition, and serves as prime minister. If his party were to replace him as leader, he would also lose his position as prime minister.
They are rarely released publicly in the country, where deliberations by party benches are generally secret. Furthermore, although a party’s replacement of the Prime Minister is not uncommon in some countries, it has not happened in New Zealand since 1997.
Luxon, a former airline executive, has seen his personal popularity and that of his party fall over the past year as the economy failed to gain momentum, unemployment remained high and inflation began to rise again.
Several polls have shown that the Luxon National Party is struggling to surpass 30%, and some indicate that the ruling coalition may not have enough votes to win an election.
In a 1News Verian poll released late on Sunday (19), support for the National Party fell 4 percentage points to 30%, and indicated that if the election were held today, the current coalition government would not win enough seats to stay in power.
Support for Luxon as preferred prime minister also fell 4 points to 16%. Support for Chris Hipkins, leader of the Labor Party and former prime minister, fell one percentage point to 19%.
This is particularly worrying for lower-ranking National Party MPs and those in contested electoral districts, who fear losing their seats if the party fails to turn things around before the November 7 elections.
