AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, has been exemplary in her response to the massacre in Christchurch, where 50 Muslims were killed in two mosques by an Australian white supremacist and his accomplices.
Ms. Arden provided a frame for national grief by embracing the Muslim immigrant community and by firmly insisting, in a tweet after the attack, “Many of those affected will be members of our migrant communities — New Zealand is their home — they are us.” She set the tone for the country’s response, framed the incident as a terrorist attack and insisted that her country will reject violent extremism.
Ms. Ardern, 38, took over as prime minister in October 2017, after generating a measure of “Jacindamania” and leading her New Zealand Labour Party to victory. Her stature as a serious progressive politician has not been affected by her celebrity status; Ms. Ardern leads in polls even as some of her policies receive mixed reviews.
Christchurch marks a turning point for Ms. Ardern and for New Zealand. She has set high benchmarks for messaging and leadership during this crisis. She is expected to unveil specific proposals to reform the country’s gun laws before Monday. Ms Ardern, wearing a black scarf, comforted families of the victims — a remarkable gesture given the reactions Muslim women’s headgear provokes in many Western countries.
New Zealanders have followed their leader’s example. Citizens are declaring that the attacker does not speak for them, donations are pouring in for families, condolence books are being signed, flowers placed in front of mosques. On Sunday, church congregations sang New Zealand’s soaring national anthem that speaks about “men of every creed and race” gathering before God’s face in a “free land.”
Through the aftermath, Ms. Ardern has consciously sought to reinforce state ideology and elevate it above private prejudice. She recognizes politics as the domain that decides a nation’s values and is providing strong narrative direction for a society suddenly dealing with exposed fault lines. She is reminding Kiwis to come to terms with the altered composition of her nation and, in fact, told Donald Trump that the best way he could support New Zealand was by offering “sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.”
On Tuesday, while speaking in the Parliament, she told the grieving families, “We cannot know your grief, but we can walk with you at every stage.” And in a pathbreaking gesture, Ms. Ardern said she will never mention the name of the terrorist, thus withholding the notoriety he sought. She implored others to “speak the names of those who were lost, rather than name of the man who took them.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking to reporters on Saturday, in Wellington, New Zealand.
Ms. Ardern is emerging as the definitive progressive antithesis to the crowded field of right-wing strongmen like President Trump, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Narendra Modi of India, whose careers thrive on illiberal, anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Ms. Arden provided a frame for national grief by embracing the Muslim immigrant community and by firmly insisting, in a tweet after the attack, “Many of those affected will be members of our migrant communities — New Zealand is their home — they are us.” She set the tone for the country’s response, framed the incident as a terrorist attack and insisted that her country will reject violent extremism.
Ms. Ardern, 38, took over as prime minister in October 2017, after generating a measure of “Jacindamania” and leading her New Zealand Labour Party to victory. Her stature as a serious progressive politician has not been affected by her celebrity status; Ms. Ardern leads in polls even as some of her policies receive mixed reviews.
Christchurch marks a turning point for Ms. Ardern and for New Zealand. She has set high benchmarks for messaging and leadership during this crisis. She is expected to unveil specific proposals to reform the country’s gun laws before Monday. Ms Ardern, wearing a black scarf, comforted families of the victims — a remarkable gesture given the reactions Muslim women’s headgear provokes in many Western countries.
New Zealanders have followed their leader’s example. Citizens are declaring that the attacker does not speak for them, donations are pouring in for families, condolence books are being signed, flowers placed in front of mosques. On Sunday, church congregations sang New Zealand’s soaring national anthem that speaks about “men of every creed and race” gathering before God’s face in a “free land.”
Through the aftermath, Ms. Ardern has consciously sought to reinforce state ideology and elevate it above private prejudice. She recognizes politics as the domain that decides a nation’s values and is providing strong narrative direction for a society suddenly dealing with exposed fault lines. She is reminding Kiwis to come to terms with the altered composition of her nation and, in fact, told Donald Trump that the best way he could support New Zealand was by offering “sympathy and love for all Muslim communities.”
On Tuesday, while speaking in the Parliament, she told the grieving families, “We cannot know your grief, but we can walk with you at every stage.” And in a pathbreaking gesture, Ms. Ardern said she will never mention the name of the terrorist, thus withholding the notoriety he sought. She implored others to “speak the names of those who were lost, rather than name of the man who took them.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking to reporters on Saturday, in Wellington, New Zealand.
Ms. Ardern is emerging as the definitive progressive antithesis to the crowded field of right-wing strongmen like President Trump, Viktor Orban of Hungary and Narendra Modi of India, whose careers thrive on illiberal, anti-Muslim rhetoric.
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