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Rarely has New Zealand had such a visible prime minister. Jacinda Ardern, 40, almost always smiling, has been on the cover of practically every international newspaper. She has been praised for her empathetic leadership style and has been praised for how she has handled the country’s crises.
Fashion magazine Vogue has portrayed Ardern as “the anti-Trump” for his empathetic leadership style and positive outlook on international collaborations. Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine has called it the future of liberal democracy.
And the mother of young children, Jacinda Ardern, is also popular at home. Especially among young people who in the Ardern see a leader who seems unassuming and down-to-earth. Ardern has spoken with people personally on Facebook at times and she, who has a degree in communication, gives the impression that she really means what she says.
When the country leaves For Saturday’s election, Arden’s Labor party clearly leads opinion polls. There is even the possibility that the party, which hovers around 50 percent in recent polls, will win its own majority. It is unusual in New Zealand, which, like Sweden, has a proportional electoral system, which often forces coalition governments.
Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s Labor Party appears poised for victory when New Zealand goes to the polls on Saturday. Here he is speaking at the University of Victoria in Wellington.
Photo: Marty Melville / AFP
The three years that have passed since she in 2017, when Ardern, at 37, became the world’s youngest political leader, have been bumpy, to say the least, and full of sudden crises to deal with.
He has ruled the country during various national traumas: an act against two mosques with 51 dead, a volcanic eruption that killed 21 people and the spread of covid-19.
On each occasion, Ardern has been praised for his calm, empathy and efficiency. In crisis, she is good, most people seem to agree. In the immediate aftermath of the mosque shootings, she put on a hijab, hugged family members like those who had died, declared “they are us” while tightening gun laws. In the same way, it quickly reached the victims when the Isla Blanca volcano erupted late last year. And to stop the spread of COVID-19, he closed the borders early, introduced a curfew, and set himself a goal of completely eradicating the virus from the island.
“Be strong please,” urged Jacinda Ardern, constantly talking about how the “team” of five million people, the people of New Zealand, would jointly fight the virus. Not infrequently in the Facebook videos where she appeared dressed casually.
Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s Labor Party appears to be heading for victory when New Zealand goes to the polls on Saturday. Ardern is praised for his empathetic leadership style and meets a mother of young children in Christchurch.
Photo: Mark Baker / AP
Crisis management has been successful and appreciated. The local spread of the infection has gone away on the island, life has largely returned to normal, and Ardennes Labor has risen in opinion polls since the virus broke out.
But in the next term, voters will demand more from Ardern. Several of the promises he made before the last election campaign have yet to be kept. These include addressing the housing shortage and high property prices in New Zealand. Here, Labor has failed. The promise to build 100,000 homes that low-income people can afford in ten years has failed. After 18 months, when according to the plan 1,000 houses were to be completed, only 141 had been built and the Minister of Housing had to resign.
Nor has he been successful in what he claimed is the reason he entered politics: to eradicate child poverty.
Judith Collins, leader of New Zealand’s largest opposition party, the right-wing National Party, is the main rival in the elections.
Photo: Marty Melville / AFP
In the elections, the main rival is the leader of the national party Judith Collins, who with her simple style contrasts with the Ardern. It accuses Ardern of poor economic policy in the wake of the pandemic that slashed New Zealand’s GDP by 12 percent in the second quarter of this year. Sure, Ardern can give the populace “love and hugs,” but from me they get “hope and work,” Collins said and promised tax cuts.
Ardern, on the other hand, is opting to raise the minimum wage and with more generous health insurance. In his election speeches, he paints a bright and hopeful picture of the future. But critics say he hasn’t been clear on what he really wants.
– There are reasons for optimism. There are reasons for hope. I hope they have every reason to look at New Zealand and be proud, but also to have the desire to push us to do more, to be more, he said while addressing students from Victoria University of Wellington.
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