SYDNEY: Anthony Albanese, Australia’s newly elected prime minister, was rushed to hospital last year after a four-wheel-drive slammed into his car.

“I thought that was it,” he told a local radio station.

At the time, his Labor Party trailed behind the conservative government in opinion polls, struggling to cut through during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the near-death experience changed his life, Albanese told the media.

In its wake, the opposition leader, 59, recovered on all fronts: Overcoming serious injury, shrugging off rumblings of a party leadership coup and shedding 18kg – an image revamp that raised some eyebrows.

His suits went from baggy to tailored, his bookish wire-framed glasses switched for “Mad Men”-style black full-rims.

Vitally, though, he was able to pull ahead of the country’s ruling conservative coalition in the polls and carry his party to victory.

Source: 7 News