just! New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister has replaced! For the first time in history!

New Zealand Chinese Pioneer Official Account Report Today, the leader of the Action Party, David Seymour, was sworn in as New Zealand’s deputy prime minister, succeeding the leader of the priority party, Winston Peters.

At noon, Seymour’s family, New Zealand Prime MinisterChristopher Luxonand the GovernorCindy KiroThe baron attended the ceremony held at the Governor’s House in Auckland (Peters’ visit to India was absent).

(The Governor’s House at the foot of Mt Eden, Auckland)

The Governor congratulated Seymour, while Luxon called it a “great honor”.

(Official document of David Seymour as Deputy Prime Minister)

The celebrations are expected to last throughout the weekend, with PAP supporters and party members attending the celebration brunch.

“This incident marks a historic milestone,” the PAP said.

“This is not only for Seymour personally, but also for the PAP, which has grown from a caucus in 2014 to 11 members of parliament in 2025 and has a place in the cabinet.”

Seymour is the 19th person to serve as New Zealand’s deputy prime minister.

Why do Peters laugh? What is Seymour thinking?

The following is an article written by John Campbell, chief reporter of New Zealand TV, “Why Peters laughs?” What is Seymour thinking? 》, this article is excerpted as follows:

Today, the Governor’s House in Auckland has set up a small scale.But an unprecedented handover ceremony——The location is also in Epsom (that is, David Seymour’s base camp).

Early in the morning, Winston Peters was still wearing the title of Deputy Prime Minister; at night, David Seymour stepped out of the gate of the solemn building as Deputy Prime Minister.

This has never happened. This is the first time that our three parties in New Zealand live together. The two little brothers are playing like this in the middle of the shift, and they are really good at doing things!

To use the nursery rhyme from AA Milne that I often heard when I was a child:

“There is a change of guards in Buckingham Palace~
The Prime Minister takes his followers to work~”

Just make the tone right!

When the arrangement was announced, everything seemed dull.

The National Party’s agreement with the Priority Party reads: “Winston Peters serves as Deputy Prime Minister until May 31, 2025.” The agreement with the PAP reads: “David Seymour serves as Deputy Prime Minister from May 31, 2025.”

“Until” and “from” – good guy, literally, we have to have two deputy prime ministers at one time today?

However, there are tricks behind this set of “beating the drum and passing the flowers”:

First, Peters is now breaking out of the chain – his style is that the more free he is, the happier he is.

Second, Seymour has to start to behave as a vice premier, and can no longer run the train like before.

I interviewed these two live treasures on site. Peters was blocked at the old Congress building on May 19, and Seymour was caught in the Honeycomb Building the next day.

Winston Peters’ magical return rules

Let’s talk about Winston Peters first. This is his third time as Vice Premier and has now stepped down again.

It is no exaggeration to say that he is New Zealand’s most successful “anti-establishment” politician. What’s amazing is that he relied on opposing the system to take office, but he ended up being an official in the system again and again, and then was “liquidated” by voters.

I have played this trick three times!

In 1999, after he had just served as deputy prime ministers for the National Party Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley, the number of votes in his party was cut in half! In the end, it was all up to his slight advantage of 63 votes in the Tauranga constituency to barely stay in Congress.

In 2008, he was kicked out by voters after working with Helen Clark’s Labor Party.

In 2020, he was the deputy prime minister under Jacinda Ardern, but he still stepped down.

Again and again: “Goodbye, goodbye”, as Susie sang.

The voters said “bye” again and again, but he was able to come back with full blood every time. This record is really amazing. (Of course, he probably didn’t want to disappear for three years every time.)

I asked him why he wanted to be the vice premier first, because it was to facilitate early election campaign?

“I think so,” he said, “yes.”

Of course. He kept stressing during the campaign: “This is not my first time riding a horse.”

Now he is liberated: “I am free, I can devote myself to the election, and I will no longer have to take the premier every Thursday!” He was so excited when he said this.

I’ve been interviewing Winston Peters for over 30 years.

I still remember the day he founded the party in 1993, when I was a young political journalist at 3 News. Our group photo was still there, and in a blink of an eye, 32 years have passed, and he is still the only leader of the priority party.

I asked him, “Have you ever thought that you will be the Vice Premier in 2025?”

He said: “No, I didn’t expect that I could still be in politics at that time.”

His interview style is often: treating reporters’ problems as provocations, then piss off a lot of angrily, labeling the media, surrounding the problems, and directly calling out to supporters in front of the camera.

Once, when we were talking during our advertising time, he simply admitted that it was intentional. He knows how to play this set.

Sometimes, interviewing is like watching a car repeatedly hit the same telephone pole – I feel that sometimes I am the driver, sometimes I am the car, and sometimes it is the pole.

Sometimes he would laugh out loud, knowing that the scene was ridiculous—but it was also very funny.

David Seymour: From “Power Commander” to Deputy Prime Minister

Unlike Winston Peters, David Seymour has never been kicked out of Congress by voters (Although he was in power for decades less than Peters）。

He was the only member of the PAP MP for two terms, and he was like Kevin in “Home Imposses”.

At the beginning, he mainly relied on the “operation” of the Epsom constituency – for example, after drinking tea with John Key, voters winked at the National Party and voted for Seymour.

In 2017, the National Party votes of the PAP received only 13,000 votes, which is similar to the population of a small town.

But by 2020, just three years later, the number of votes of the PAP soared to more than 219,000.

In 2023,He has brought ten MP partners into the cabinet and will take over as Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government.

But, is it a little stuck now?

In the 2023 election, the PAP won 8.64%. The poll in 2024 rose to 9%, barely rising by 0.36%.

But he has a very high exposure during this period and is on camera almost every day – but the results are not great.

You can compare Don Brash’s Ōrewa speech in 2004, when the National Party poll soared from 28% to 45%.

And Seymour’sTreaty Principles Actalthough eye-catching and controversial, did not bring about the same surge in approval ratings.

The bill was rejected by Congress by 112 to 11, and 90% of the 300,000 public comments opposed it.

The PAP’s YouTube channel is called “David vs The Media” and is quite confrontational.

The word “confrontation” itself is full of confrontation. These videos are usually taken in the Congress corridor: he quickly walked across the bridge connecting the old Capitol and the Honeycomb Building, and the waiting reporters seemed passive in the camera because of the distance, while his rapid figure seemed more oppressive in the follow-up camera.

Although the reporters only perform their duties, the entire atmosphere – borrowing Dennis Denuto’s lines from “Castle” – is entirely based on “feeling”.

The video released by the PAP is equipped with titles such as “Thank you for asking questions including racism”, “We have dealt with many idiots”, “Crazy entanglements funded by taxpayers”, “Lunch first reporters are being taught”, which is like middle school students graffiti on pen boxes that hate classmates.

The video must be full of criticism of the media – then David Seymour will condemn the public’s distrust of the media, forming a strange cycle.

He is now the Vice Premier – this is a great achievement.

But for a politician who has the advantage of challenging the status quo, it may also be the biggest challenge.

Perhaps, now “free” Winston Peters can tell him how difficult this balance is to maintain, and how expensive it is if it is imbalanced.

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