debtFrom the moment she arrived, Jacinda Ardern has been surrounded by crowds. Hundreds gather to ask for her final selfie, record video her messages to her friends and relatives, and watch her pass by. A group of running children slip past the bystander’s feet, pushing for a better view.
Time and time again she obliges, smiles into her camera phone, asks people’s names and occupations, tells jokes, and signs a well-worn blue-and-yellow basketball for a boy pushing through the crowd bottom.
A politician who has always excelled at creating moments of humor and relationship, Ardern’s much-talked-about star power was firmly in the village of Ratana on the North Island on Tuesday for her final official engagement as New Zealand’s prime minister. was shown.
“It’s like, ‘Touch her cloak, touch her cloak like Jesus,'” one woman chuckled to a friend.
“Where is she? Is she coming?”
“I just want to say thank you to her,” a woman outside the Ratana Temple tells a police officer standing nearby. “In everything.”
There’s a man who waves his hands vigorously, incessantly, for one minute.
“Someday we’ll have to let go,” an onlooker says, and the crowd laughs.
New Zealand, and the world, are still weighing the shock resignation of Prime Minister Ardern, the whirlwind choice of her successor, and the question of how to define her political legacy. In her last full day as a lawmaker, some of her political legacy and some of the more troubling and more controversial issues of the legislative record seemed to fade into the background.
R.Aartana traditionally marks the beginning of the political year in New Zealand, when the party leader descends into the village to make his first major speech after the summer holidays.
The scene recalls some of the rabid fandom Ardern sparked when she first became president in 2017. Five years of difficult decisions and political struggles have worn away much of its luster, especially in polls as voters punished the prime minister and his party for a year of economic headwinds. rice field.
But the glow returned on Tuesday. A few meters away, Prime Minister-elect Chris Hipkins stands in a circle of reporters answering questions.
On Tuesday, there were no signs of the small crowds of furious protesters who have become more and more frequent in Prime Minister Ardern’s public appearances.
Ardern says intimidation or abuse was not a factor in her resignation, but her resignation has prompted the onset of a still offensive reckoning in New Zealand, with a range of misogynistic and violent rhetoric, abuse and intimidation. Speaking briefly to reporters, she said her enduring experience with the job had been positive.
“I would hate for anyone to see my departure as a negative comment on New Zealand,” she said.
“I have experienced this kind of love, compassion, empathy and kindness in my work. I bid you farewell with the feeling of… All I have are words of gratitude.”
AhThey waited for prime ministers, tribal elders and politicians to be protected from the late summer sun’s blast by plastic marquees. Long stretched and parched, the summer heat has worn it down to its fibers, signaling the end of the season. Despite her term ending, the question of Ardern’s continued influence on the direction and tone of New Zealand politics remains unresolved.
Even before she reached the Ratana border, Ardern’s appearance loomed large over political speeches of the day. , chose to talk about his vision for the “politics of kindness” she spearheaded. A choice of framing that only seemed to explain the extent to which Ardern came to determine the language and frame of reference of New Zealand’s political discourse.
Most leaders gave more open tributes. “You were the captain commanding Waka. [canoe] Rahui Papa, leader of the Tainui and Maori King movement, said:
Former Māori Party President Choi Wilson said, “You were the right person to lead this country through a time of great direness. I am wearing my political allegiance here,” he said, adding: He said, referring to the indigenous designs that patterned his clothing.
Asked if she had any farewell words for the nation, the prime minister said she would not disappear completely. Asked if she would miss it, Ardern replied simply. Because that was the joy of this job. “
T.A celebration at Rātana is a fitting way to conclude Ardern’s tenure. In 2018, just two months into her premiership and days after his daughter Neve’s pregnancy was announced, she appeared on Rahtana. That year, the Rātana elders gave her child a Maori middle name. In the years that followed, rallies marked milestones and moments in Ardern’s tenure as leader and watched her family grow.
In a brief final address to reporters, Ardern said she looked forward to spending more time in that role as a mother and family member.
“I’m ready to be a lot of things,” she said. She then turned around, put her sunglasses back on, and walked away from the final group of microphones she would face as Prime Minister.
