MANAGER
Jacinda Ardern is the type of politician the world needs more of.
ROLE MODEL: New Zealand’s young prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, became an international leading star. Now she is stepping down after what is described as a heated campaign on home soil. Photo: Dave Lintott / AFP
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Manager: This is an editorial from Dagbladet, and expresses the newspaper’s view. Dagbladet’s political editor is responsible for the editorial.
Jacinda Ardern’s sister announced that she will step down as Prime Minister of New Zealand, the news was reported in the media around the world. It is a highly unusual reaction to an undramatic political shift in a country with only five million inhabitants. Sorry, Jonas Gahr Støre, but you’re unlikely to be featured in The New York Times or top the BBC news on the day you retire. Talk show host Steven Colbert isn’t going to pay tribute to you in that same evening’s monologue.
Not to live with
Even then the centre-left politician Ardern became prime minister five and a half years ago, aged just 37, garnering attention as the youngest female head of government in the world, but it quickly became clear that she had qualities that elevated her to the ranks of world leaders who are listened to, despite that she ruled a small country that is rarely in the news. It may have been the time she ruled in. The contrast with aging authoritarian leaders such as Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump was stark and to her advantage. A prime minister who is pregnant and breastfeeding in parliament is not everyday food either.
A year and a half after she took office, she was put to the test more experienced heads of state have failed. The terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch ended with 51 dead and 40 injured. Ardern touched the whole world when she mourned with Muslim residents with a headscarf, and her clear message to the terrorist is compared to Jens Stoltenberg’s speech after Utøya. Within a short time, she introduced strict gun laws and put pressure on social media platforms to take hate speech more seriously.
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Through the pandemic she was in the same way, an international leading star who reacted resolutely with restrictions and closure. It wasn’t just popular. A growing dissatisfaction from the far right wing over the handling of covid, combined with economic downturns, has in the past year triggered what many describe as a sexist hate campaign against her. She denied that the departure was due to the incitement, but she was drained of energy.
The down-to-earth and empathetic Jacinda Ardern became a role model for both female and male politicians. Instead of conflict and polarization, she sought cooperation and reconciliation. It is tragic that so many voters around the world allow themselves to be seduced by demagogues and populists with divisive messages that pit people against each other. It leaves less and less room for proper politicians like Jacinda Ardern.
