He is going to be the new face of Australian politics.

Anthony Albanese, the next Prime Minister of Australia, is a man of the people and a miracle of a road accident who knew how to straighten the Labor Party and lead it to a victory by the wire, ending nine years of reign conservatives on the huge country-continent.

"I thought that was the end of it," said Anthony Albanese, describing his hospitalization in critical condition last year after his car collided with an all-terrain vehicle driven by a teenager.

A survivor of a serious road accident

At the time, Labor was trailing in the polls, far behind Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Conservatives.

Anthony Albanese, nicknamed "Albo" by his supporters, explained that having been close to death gave him the energy to change everything.

At 59, he can now boast of a recovery on all fronts: he has regained his health, he has consolidated his authority at the head of his party, and he has lost 18 kilos.

His suits have become more chic, and he has traded in his metal bookseller's glasses for black frames à la Mad Men.

Above all, he is bringing Labor back to power after a run at the top for more than a year in the polls, thanks to targeted attacks on the government's handling of the pandemic and the catastrophic fires during the southern summer of 2020.

A modest childhood

Anthony Albanese was first elected to parliament in 1996. At the time, he dedicated his first speech to his mother, Maryanne Ellery, who had raised him alone in Sydney council housing "in very difficult economic circumstances. difficult".

A Labor activist since high school, the first member of his family to study at university, he says his working-class background has shaped his worldview.

"It says a lot about this country," he said as he voted on Saturday, his voice cracking with emotion, "that someone with my background can stand before you today, hoping to be elected First minister of this country".

Anthony Albanese said his mother, a Catholic, decided to name him after his father, even though they had never married and had never lived together.

"I was brought up believing he was dead," he explained.

"That says a lot about the pressure that was put on women."

After the birth in 2000 of his only son, Nathan, Anthony Albanese set out to find his own father, Carlo Albanese, with an old photograph as the only clue.

He had finally reunited with him in his hometown of Barletta, Italy, and had reconciled with him before his death in 2014. "The last conversation we had was to say to each other that we were Glad to have found each other," he said.

Former Minister of Transport

Anthony Albanese will be the first Australian head of government to bear a surname other than Anglo-Saxon or Celtic.

After rising through the ranks of the Labor Party, "Albo" became transport minister in 2007 when Kevin Rudd came to power, retaining this portfolio under the next prime minister, Julia Gillard.

He eventually became opposition leader after Labor was defeated in the 2019 election.

Unable to travel the country during the pandemic, Anthony Albanese nevertheless managed to make himself known to voters.

During his campaign, he dried up in front of journalists who had trapped him by asking him what the unemployment rate in Australia and the central bank's key rate were.

But he put this faux pas into perspective.

"Everyone makes mistakes in life. The question is whether we can learn from them. This government keeps repeating the same mistakes," he said.

He promised to set up a powerful anti-corruption body, to raise the minimum wage in line with inflation and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030. In his victory speech, he also promised to transform Australia into a "superpower" of renewable energies.

He has so far refrained from saying whether he intended to give up coal or ban the opening of new mines, a sector on which the country's economy still heavily depends.

With AFP

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