ANALYSIS: There’s only one real contender for Comeback of The Year.

The out again, in again, comeback king – the Rt Hon Winston Peters – is back. He’s returned to the Beehive, once again, to be deputy prime minister.

Peters is a political survivor. Since first entering Parliament in 1979, this is his third stint as deputy prime minister. He’s been all around, starting with National, going out on his own, forming his own party to work with Labour, and now National again.

Since arriving back in Parliament this month, Peters has presented himself as the underdog.

“They all laughed at us, but they’re not laughing now,” he told supports in Russell on election night.

During his first speech to Parliament this term, he continued: “We came back to Parliament to do the impossible!”

While his three-peat as deputy prime minister is remarkable, it’s not all that surprising to see Peters back in the Beehive.

While he left Parliament in 2020, he never really left politics. Remember he was out meeting the crowds during the Covid-inspired occupation of Parliament grounds, and then kicked off a long ground campaign visiting town halls across the country to discuss everything, and anything from the United Nations, vaccine mandates, to te reo Māori.

It worked.

In three years, Peters went from being acting prime minister for Jacinda Ardern to a spokesperson for people who stood against what her Government stood for – especially around cultural issues and the pandemic hangover.

How quickly things changed.