After the election, where next for the populist right?

The election results have the future of the New Conservative Party looking uncertain, and what of all the others?

Unsurprisingly, none of the fringe right parties made it to parliament

After the election, where next for the populist right?

While it initially looked like as many as eight parties who could be grouped under the broad category of populist right would contest the 2023 election, by the time the election was held there were six on the ballot (seven if you could NZ First- we’ll get to them) for many of those parties, their final results would have been disappointing, but some may be seeing a glimmer of hope. Let's take a look at the change in vote for parties who had run in 2020. (Note for FreedomsNZ I am adding together the vote of their two major component parties for 2020.)

New Conservative saw their vote collapse, when the ONE/NewZeal vote doubled

NewZeal, which in 2020 was called ONE, managed to almost double their support, getting around 0.5% of the total votes. Unlike the New Conservatives, ONE/NewZeal has always been an explicitly Christian party, in fact, they are Christian nationalists. It would appear the new leader, former National MP Alfred Ngaro, has boosted their profile. This result cements them as the biggest conservative ‘Christian values’ party on the ballot and it’s likely they will replace the New Conservatives as the voice of this demographic.