His microphone stayed on, so everyone in the conference room could hear New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arndern say to the opposition representative who was questioning her: The man is an arrogant man. After the incident, the Prime Minister submitted an apology to the specialist by letter.
On Tuesday, the ruling Labor Party and the opposition Conservatives got into a heated debate in New Zealand’s parliament. David Seymour, leader of the ACT Conservative-Liberal party, bombarded Ardern with questions about her government’s performance for about seven minutes, then asked her to give at least one example of when she and her government made a mistake, for which they properly apologized and corrected.
The Prime Minister’s response to this: His government has admitted on several occasions that it has not always given “complete answers”, for example during the country’s anti-virus measures, but has always tried to keep the country’s interests in mind. After finishing her response, Ardern calmly spoke to her deputy and said, “What an overbearing p.cs.”
The remark was barely audible on the parliamentary broadcast, but was picked up by the prime minister’s office microphone. Seymour immediately declined to comment. “I was completely shocked. This is very inappropriate for Jacinda, I’ve known her for 11 years,” the politician told the Associated Press.
After the incident, the Prime Minister’s Office said Ardern had apologized to Seymour. The latter claims that Ardern apologized in a letter and admitted that she should not have made such a comment. The politician said he still held the prime minister in high esteem and thanked Ardern for his apology and wished Ardern a happy birthday in his response.
According to opinion polls, the ruling Labor Party is facing a difficult campaign in 2023, as its popularity has declined since the landslide victory two years ago, and conservative parties are leading in opinion polls. In New Zealand, elections will be held at the end of 2023, and according to opinion polls, the prime minister and his party are not doing very well at the moment: they are five points behind the opposition conservatives, he writes. BBC.
