How New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern Went from Pandemic Hero to Political Casualty

Jacinda Ardern‘s tough response to the Covid-19 pandemic catapulted her party to a historic election landslide in late 2020. But about a year later, her popularity began to wane.

New Zealand’s strict border closure, designed to keep out the virus, was hurting tourism businesses, educational institutions and other sectors that relied on visitors, foreign students and workers from overseas. Auckland, the country’s biggest city, was still locked down for several months near the end of 2021. New Zealanders were frustrated that their bigger neighbor, Australia, appeared to be reopening faster.

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Featured image, Ministry of Justice of New Zealand, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons