AKIPRESS.COM - Jacinda Ardern will be the next New Zealand Prime Minister, after Winston Peters, the leader of the minority NZ First agreed Thursday to support Ardern's Labour party in a coalition government, CNN reported.
Peters' decision ends almost a month of uncertainty, and weeks of negotiations, conducted by Peters with both Ardern and the incumbent Prime Minister Bill English's National party after the general election on September 23 ended in a hung parliament.
Speaking to reporters at the New Zealand Parliament, known as the Beehive, Peters was scant on details about the agreement with Ardern's party, but hinted he could become deputy prime minister.
Ardern will become New Zealand's third female prime minister, and the second-youngest, after Edward Stafford, who become Premier in 1856. He was also 37, but born later in the year.
The Labour-NZ First coalition will control 55 of the 120 seats in the country's parliament, meaning it will be dependent on the Green Party and its eight lawmakers to overcome the 61-seat threshold to pass policies.
Peters said the Greens will not be an official coalition party, meaning their support will be policy by policy.
While Labour and the Greens share many priorities, some in the new coalition may be looking nervously at the UK, where the Democratic Unionist Party, in a similar agreement with the governing Conservative Party, has refused to back several policies and voted with the opposition in parliament.