Lhe world discovered Jacinda Ardern on March 16, 2019, the day after the Christchurch attack. An Australian far-right activist had just shot fifty-one people in two mosques in the city. Wearing a black veil, the Prime Minister of New Zealand came to express her support for families, inviting all her fellow citizens to “show compassion for the victims”.
The empathy and dignity she showed on this occasion – but also her determination to eradicate all forms of racism and her decision to toughen the legislation on the carrying of firearms – were unanimous. In the weeks that followed, many New Zealand women, including policewomen, wore veils with the slogan “Scarf for Harmony” as a sign of solidarity with the Muslim community. “Salam aleikum” (“Peace be with you”), launched the head of government by opening the parliamentary session which followed the massacre. A call that Jacinda Ardern also declined in English and Maori.
His spirit of openness and his ability to work for the recognition of minorities while preaching the unity of the country were unanimously praised. First elected to lead the country in 2017, at the age of 37, this Labor member, who broke with her Mormon upbringing and calls herself an agnostic, has become a global political star because of her ability to manage the seizures.
Cold blood
That of Covid-19, which she took head on, quickly forging a consensus around the need to observe very strict rules which greatly reduced mortality during the first year of the pandemic. Or the one, hidden, with Beijing. “As China’s role in the world grows (…)the differences between our two systems (…) become more difficult to reconcile, she launched without hesitation during an economic summit between the two countries. Mme Ardern never loses his temper. While everything starts to shake on the set during a live television broadcast, she calmly lets go: “It’s an earthquake we have here. »
Celebrated as a model of governance and a muse of progressivism, the Prime Minister was triumphantly re-elected in 2020. However, the “Jacindamania” has experienced bad times. The Prime Minister had to reconsider her zero Covid-19 policy, carried away by the eruption of the Delta variant, she must also respond to the criticisms made about her pro-environment commitment, proclaimed loud and clear, but ambiguous.
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