Explained: Popular abroad, how Jacinda Ardern’s brand plummeted in New Zealand

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern in a shocking decision announced she would be stepping down from her post next month. Ardern gained acclaim on the world stage for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the country’s worst mass shooting but has faced increasing criticism at home. Let’s take a closer look at Ardern: Growing up Ardern grew up in the North Island hinterland, where her father was a police officer.

She credits the poverty she saw there with shaping her beliefs.

Raised as a Mormon, Ardern left the faith in her 20s due to its stance against homosexuality. After completing a communications degree, Ardern began her political career in former prime minister Helen Clark’s office before heading to Britain to work as a policy adviser in Tony Blair’s government. She was elected to parliament in 2008 and in March 2017 became Labour’s deputy leader, saying at the time that she was not ambitious and saw herself as a backroom staffer. Ardern transformed from self-described “policy nerd” to prime minister on a wave of “Jacinda-mania” after being thrust into the Labour leadership just seven weeks before the 2017 election. Gaining popularity Ardern first gained international fame by becoming New Zealand prime minister at the age of 37 – the youngest in that nation since 1856. As per The Spectator, Ardern was also among the first millennials to be head of government. In 2018, Ardern became just the second world leader, after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, to give birth while in office. Ardern then made headlines all around the world when she brought her three-year-old baby Neve to the floor of the UN General Assembly in New York. [caption id=“attachment_12012482” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Jacinda Ardern holds her daughter Neve at the UN. AFP[/caption] “I want to normalise it,” Ardern told CNN at the time_._

“By being more open it might create a path for other women.”

Ardern’s time at the helm also overlapped with figures such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, and Jair Bolsonaro in office in their respective nations as well as strongmen like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin holding power. As The Spectator pointed out in a piece, “Anyone wishing for an anti-Trump, an anti-Johnson or an anti-Bolsonaro could not dream up a more suitable figure than Ardern. If she did not exist, she would have to be invented. She ticks all the boxes.” The piece further noted that Ardern became a media darling due to her communication expertise. “Whether it is a Facebook Live broadcast from her home in her pajamas or a traditional press conference, Ardern oozes a highly personalised brand of warmth, kindness, and empathy,” the piece noted. The contrast with Trump was particularly stark. As Geoffrey Miller, a geopolitical analyst with the Wellington-based non-profit Democracy Project, told NPR, “In many ways, she was the anti-Trump figure.” “They both came into office in 2017 … but she went off to the United Nations and she decried isolationism, brandishing an image of being an internationalist or being a globalist.” Handling crises Ardern’s first term was one beset by crises. In March 2019, she was forced to confront New Zealand’s worst terror attack when a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people in two mosques in Christchurch. The gunman, Brenton Tarrant, livestreamed the killings in what many in the media dubbed “36 minutes of terror”. Ardern responded by vowing to change gun laws, investigate what went wrong and pushed social media giants to address online hate speech. She also won praise for the way in which she embraced the survivors and New Zealand’s Muslim community in the aftermath including  donning a black headscarf when meeting members of the community. [caption id=“attachment_12012922” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, hugs and consoles a woman as she visited Kilbirnie Mosque to lay flowers among tributes to Christchurch attack victims, in Wellington. File image/AFP[/caption] But she also received online backlash as critics pointed out that women in conservative Muslim countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia were forced to cover up for the sake of modesty or risk public rebuke, fines or arrest. Women’s rights advocates also said it was a sensitive issue for many women campaigning globally against the obligatory wearing of headscarves and other clothing in a fight against oppression. In December that year, a deadly volcanic eruption on the White Island (also known as Whakaari) left 21 dead and dozens more with horrific burns. Ardern yet again won praise for her treatment of first responders, the way she dealt with the press, and her calm handling of the aftermath of the tragedy. But Ardern’s biggest test was undoubtedly the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ardern’s handling of the pandemic initially won plaudits around the world.

Ardern, with the motto of “go hard and go early” acted quickly –placing the country under lockdown in March 2020 when just around 100 people had tested COVID-19 positive. In April 2020, New Zealand made a bold claim – it would seek to eliminate the coronavirus altogether. “We have the opportunity to do something no other country has achieved: elimination of the virus,” Ardern told reporters at the time. “But it will continue to need a team of 5 million behind it.” In the months that followed, New Zealand was able to keep the virus at bay and deaths at a minimum. Ardern eventually won a second term by a landslide in October 2020, snatching a clear parliamentary majority as she rode a wave of “Jacindamania” popularity underpinned by her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ardern, who cobbled together a coalition government in 2017, dubbed her second win “the COVID election”. She campaigned on her government’s success in eliminating community transmission of the coronavirus, which at the time had claimed 25 lives in a population of five million. New Zealand only fully reopened its borders in August last year. The total number of deaths attributed to Covid has now climbed to 2,437. Criticisms at home However, things at home slowly changed. The government’s elimination approach, though broadly supported by New Zealanders was facing increasing criticism. Hundreds of people attended rallies protesting the lockdown. New Zealand’s vaccination campaign also got off to a slower start compared to other developed nations. [caption id=“attachment_12012672” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The litany of problems Jacinda Ardern will leave for her successor also includes a cost of living crisis, unaffordable housing, increasing crime and public discontent over harsh Covid-19 measures Image Courtesy AP[/caption] The government was forced to acknowledge that the goal of eliminating the virus was unachievable and slowly began easing restrictions. Ardern said the elimination strategy had served the country incredibly well but the government always intended to eventually transition to the protection of vaccines, a change hastened by the delta variant “game changer.” The criticism of the government only intensified in 2022. That year witnessed a protest that began on Parliament’s grounds last for more than three weeks. Ardern refused to meet the protestors – many of them espousing anti-vaccine conspiracy theories – and said they were using “intimidation and harassment” to get their point across. It ended with protesters hurling rocks at police and setting fires to tents and mattresses as they were forced to leave. The heated emotions around the coronavirus debate led to a level of vitriol directed at Ardern that had rarely been seen by other New Zealand leaders. More than 100 people were eventually arrested, with Ardern later describing the situation as “incredibly difficult” and “challenging”. Ardern’s popularity has since waned as she battled declining trust in government, a deteriorating economic situation, and a resurgent conservative Opposition. Morgan Godfery, a liberal writer and senior lecturer in marketing at Otago University in Dunedin, told The New York Times that Ardern is seen as  “missing in action” on issues important to voters. “New Zealanders who see this day to day are getting frustrated by a lack of change,” Godfery said.  But if you look from overseas, you don’t see the lack of policy, you see the personality. And that’s where the mismatch comes in.” Godfrey added that Ardern “is a genuinely caring and compassionate person who has a deep commitment to issues of inequality, climate change and child poverty.”

“But often that doesn’t translate to a concrete policy program.”

The stress has been evident in recent months – Ardern showed a rare lapse of poise when she was unwittingly caught on microphone calling an Opposition politician an “arrogant prick”. This year, Ardern was forced to cancel an annual barbecue she hosts due to security fears. Recent polls put the centre-right coalition ahead, with elections to be held on 14 October. Ardern’s own approval rating is now a paltry 29 per cent – the lowest since before taking over as prime minister. Ardern, announcing she is stepping down, said the role required having a reserve to face the unexpected. “But I am not leaving because it was hard. Had that been the case I probably would have departed two months into the job,” she said. “I am leaving because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead, and also, when you are not.” The Spectator piece argued that Ardern’s government failed on every single metric when it comes to fulfilling her campaign promises such as reducing child poverty, lowering carbon emissions, solving the country’s housing crisis and improving mental health. “The gap between people’s impression of Ardern and her actual performance as a leader has widened to a gulf. So long as enough modern Tacituses write gushing Ardern portraits, her superstar status will not change,” the piece noted. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .