BLAZING HER OWN TRAIL

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s ‘politics of kindness’ and calm leadership in times of crisis have made her more popular than ever

- RICHARD VAN RENSBURG

IT WAS hard to imagine she could become even more popular than she was when sworn in as prime minister three years ago.

Even then pundits called it Jacindamania – the wave of adoration that swept across New Zealand when she took over as the No 1 citizen of her country.

But Jacinda Ardern, the youngest Kiwi prime minister in 150 years, has achieved what few politicians across the globe have in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

She’s not only kept down crisis levels in the nation of some five million people but also seen her popularity soar at home and abroad thanks to the special brand of leadership she’s shown, especially in recent weeks.

The New York Times calls it The Jacinda Method – and it’s a heady mix of clarity and compassion that’s worked well for the 39-year-old as the coronavirus crisis rages on.

“She quickly became a leader who could talk policy from a podium, dress down a sexist commentator on camera, or post a Facebook video encouraging a rugby team while a cat on her lap struggled against a plastic collar the size of a lampshade,” the newspaper’s Damien Cave writes.

“Pandemics are often described as crises of communication, when leaders must persuade entire populations to suspend their lives because of an invisible threat. Watching Ms Ardern on Facebook – her favoured conduit – is a lesson in rhetorical blending: epidemiology brightened with empathy, law leavened with mom jokes. And it’s been strikingly effective.”

She recently showed New Zealanders again that she has nerves of steel when an earthquake struck during a live TV interview.