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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won an overwhelming election and changed New Zealand’s parliament.
It wasn’t just Jacinda Ardern’s crisis management that convinced voters in New Zealand. His Labor party won an absolute majority in parliament.
The day after being re-elected, the New Zealand Prime Minister met with some fellow activists and friends at a cafe near her home. “I’m enjoying this day,” she said frankly, with a liberated smile when the reporters saw her.
This is how Jacinda Ardern celebrated her resounding electoral success. Ardern’s Labor Party had obtained an absolute majority in the New Zealand Parliament, which changed radically with the elections. Almost half of the MPs are now women, 12 per cent are gay and lesbian, 16 Maori and two MPs with migratory backgrounds from Africa and Asia are new. Most of the newly elected members are also younger than ever. Political scientist Bronwyn Hayward from the University of Canterbury smiles and says: “The traditional supremacy of privileged older white men in New Zealand’s parliament is gone, the new parliament reflects New Zealand society much better than before.”
In 2017, Ardern’s political career got off to a bad start. Just two months before the election, the Labor Party chose the then 37-year-old as its main candidate, more out of desperation than conviction, after the miserable election results. Her conservative opponents and many commentators ridiculed the young candidate, who placed “kindness” – kindness, consideration and compassion – at the center of her politics. But for many young people, especially young women, Jacinda Ardern became a symbol of hope.
His votes helped the Ardern Labor Party win 36.9 percent of the vote in 2017, very little to govern. But after weeks of negotiations with the populist NZ First party, Jacinda Ardern was able to form a coalition government that was tolerated by the Greens. With patience, tolerance, respectful discussions and compromises, he managed to hold the coalition together for three years. “Ardern wants to change the way people talk about politics and democracy,” says political scientist Richard Shaw of Massey University in Auckland. “He said in an interview that he would like New Zealand schoolchildren to dream of becoming politicians.”
Ardern grew up in a religious home
Ardern’s origins shaped his style of government based on conviction and cooperation. Ardern, who grew up the daughter of Mormons and came from a small family, was already committed to tolerance and human interaction at school. At seventeen, he said goodbye to his parents’ beliefs, became a Social Democrat, studied communications and began his political work in Tony Blair’s UK office and with his mentor, Helen Clark, the Labor Prime Minister of New York. Zeeland. At the age of 28, she moved to the New Zealand Parliament as a defender of the Labor Party. Until her surprising rise to the top candidate of her party, she was little known.
As a young Prime Minister, she made the first international headlines. At a reception for Queen Elizabeth in Great Britain, Jacinda Ardern appeared in a traditional Maori feather cape. Her round belly could be seen under the dress: Ardern was pregnant. She was proud of her partner. After giving birth, she took six weeks of maternity leave while represented by Secretary of State Winston Peters of the New Zealand First Party. Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford, host of a popular TV show, has been caring for their daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, since they took office. On Ardern’s first trip to the UN in New York, he brought the nursing mother’s baby into the conference room. Gayford has his famous wife’s back covered, as most politician wives do. This surprised generally conservative New Zealanders less than abroad – after all, New Zealand was the first country to introduce women’s suffrage as early as 1893.
Three great crises in three years
The first major test for Ardern was when a right-wing extremist terrorist killed 51 people in and around two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019. Jacinda Ardern rushed into town, accompanied by representatives from all the parties to which he had invited. The image of the young prime minister, who, covered with a headscarf, embraced the survivors and relatives of the Muslim victims, went around the world. The Prime Minister encouraged her compatriots to show compassion for the victims and united them in sadness and united action against hatred. In this crisis, Ardern showed not only empathy, but also determination and assertiveness. Under his leadership, New Zealand tightened its gun laws. He managed to convince his fellow parliamentarians and especially his coalition partner, the NZ First party, which represented a particularly high number of hunters and gun owners, in lengthy discussions. When 21 people died a few months later in a volcanic eruption on a small island, Ardern was actively involved in the rescue operation for 26 survivors and provided millions for the economic consequences of the natural disaster.
Then the crown pandemic broke out. In a short time, the Prime Minister managed to convince the vast majority of New Zealanders to work towards the goal of eliminating the coronavirus in their own country. Together with his medical advisers, he convinced “our team of 5 million” to enter a strict two-month lockdown across the country and close all international borders. The tougher you are against the virus, the faster you can return to a kind of normal life, according to their argument. Seriously, but objectively and thoroughly, Ardern prepared his compatriots for the difficult moment of the shutdown and its economic consequences. He provided billions for unemployed New Zealanders while at the same time slashing his salary and that of his ministers by 20 percent for six months. He did not hide from them that there were still many uncertainties in the fight against the virus, but at the same time he set firm goals to end the situation. Almost every day, Ardern not only reached out to the public officially in press conferences with his medical advisers, but also through Facebook to keep people engaged.
Without a script or makeup, as one is used to in conversations with friends and family, Ardern encouraged his compatriots and patiently responded to questions in the comments, often from the living room sofa or at the dining room table, in a tracksuit or jeans. . From time to time her partner played in the background with the little daughter, who once interrupted her mother and made her and her audience laugh. Time and again, Ardern warned his compatriots to regularly babysit older or single neighbors. With “kindness”, human affection and understanding, New Zealanders were able to survive the harsh confinement and then rewarded themselves with a near normal daily life. Another shorter lockdown after a local outbreak two months later was also accepted by most New Zealanders. The hard work was rewarded: New Zealand with its 5 million inhabitants has only recorded 1,887 corona infections and 25 deaths to date.
Jacinda Ardern’s recipe for success
With her crisis management, Jacinda Ardern has proven to be an outspoken, honest, efficient and, most of all, authentic leader, says Andrei Alexander Lux, an expert in organizational leadership qualities at Edith Cowan University in Australia. “True leaders in politics and business know their own strengths and weaknesses,” writes Lux in the academic journal “The Conversation.” “They act on deeply held values, with a moral compass and try to understand how their actions affect other people.” They are willing to take responsibility for their mistakes. Real authenticity helps a leader like Ardern bring people together in a common cause. That is Jacinda Ardern’s recipe for success. She is the complete opposite of US President Donald Trump.
