Is Jacinda the best or worst?
June 24, 2022
Overseas Jacinda Ardern may be the world’s most admired politician but at home, where it matters, her citizens are no longer convinced.
Last year she topped Fortune Magazine's list of the world's greatest leaders and a German magazine described her as “the best politician in the world”.
Just a year later she has earned the title ‘the worst Prime Minister Kiwis ever had’.
Recent polling shows National edging ahead of Labour for the first time in two years and Jacinda Ardern’s previously strong support has dwindled.
Ardern’s popularity has dropped to 35 per cent, from 48 per cent a year ago - the latest 1 News Kantar poll.
And according to a Guardian report, the Prime Minister has faced increasingly vociferous and explicit calls for violence against her. Police dealt with 50 threats targeting Ardern in 2021, up from 18 in 2019.
To be blunt, many people are disillusioned and angry.
In an opinion piece Suze Wilson, a senior lecturer at Massey University, says It’s probably not an overstatement to say Ardern is presently one of the most reviled people in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Wilson says that even on LinkedIn, claims that Ardern is a “tyrant” or “dictator” have been increasingly commonplace.
Why have many voters switched from adoration to anger?
The Kantar poll found many New Zealanders were feeling pessimistic about their economic outlook – 49 per cent thought the economy would get worse, versus 22 per cent better, showing a steady decline in economic optimism over the past two years.
But it’s more than that.
Engagement is everything, said one Stuff writer back in 2020, explaining how Jacinda Ardern became New Zealand's most successful political influencer.
At that time Ardern was seen to seal her position as a great leader early in her premiership by empathetically steering her country through the aftermath of a terror attack and the White Island eruption.
More recently her empathy is seen as brutally selective.
Her refusal to engage with protesters at Parliament this year caused enduring and costly hurt.
Her shutting down of any debate about vaccine injuries is deeply resented.
Ardern has 1.9million followers on Facebook.
The recent post about the cabinet reshuffle had 6.1k likes, 3.1k comments and 208 shares.
To get an idea of just how divided the country is about her leadership, simply browse through the comments.
And then there’s yesterday’s Newstalk ZB post about the reopening of Parliament grounds and the following stream of critical comments. The grass may have regrown but clearly wounds are still fresh and painful.
Marking Matariki this week Jacinda Ardern said, “And so, I share this same simple aspiration: that this moment in time, this waypoint in our journey, offers us the chance to come together as families, but also as a nation. Under the stars of a bright, optimistic, and hopeful Matariki. A space where there is room for all of us.”
Perhaps she is rethinking her infamous and cold response to the Wellington protesters. And maybe we will see her wrap her kind arms around the vaccine injured.
Sources
World’s greatest leader
Ardern receives threats
NZ’s worst PM
https://tfiglobalnews.com/2022/01/29/jacinda-ardern-the-worst-prime-minister-the-kiwis-ever-had/
Most successful influencer
Kantar Poll
https://www.scribd.com/document/555239179/1News-Kantar-Public-Poll-Report-22-26-January-2022
Sydney Morning Herald on threats
Newstalk ZB
Jacinda Ardern marks Matariki