Facing her lowest ratings since coming to power, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made headlines on Tuesday when she was caught calling the leader of a minority opposition party an “asshole”. arrogant”.
The episode took place during a question and answer session in Congress. Then David Seymour of the liberal ACT party asked the prime minister if she would give “an example of a time when she has made a mistake, apologized for it duly, and corrected it”. Jacinda responded that the severity of the measures her government imposed to contain Covid-19 was difficult for the population, but that she defends the work she did in her term.
The curse came after Jacinda finished answering the question and sat down next to her deputy, Grant Robertson. His microphone was open, and the speech was as audible as the speaker’s request, Adrian Rurawhe, for the next in line to present his question.
Seymour at first demanded that the Prime Minister apologize to Congress, but the request was denied. Later, in a meeting with the press, he stated that Jacinda sent a text message redeeming herself for what happened and that everything was fine between the two.
🇧🇷[Ela] said ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that and, as my mother says, if you don’t have something nice to say, it’s best to keep quiet. I replied ‘thanks and hope you have a merry Christmas. In the end, it’s not the end of the world.”
“The apology I was really looking for is New Zealanders’ concern about high prices and shoplifting,” added Seymour, referring to a practice that has become commonplace in the country in recent months, where criminals about trades with their cars and destroy their windows to loot them.
The grievances are similar to those driving the worst approval rating for Jacinda and her Labor Party since he was elected in 2017.
A poll released earlier this month by Kantar One News Polling states that today 29% of the population would choose Jacinda as prime minister. Days before the October 2020 elections, when the caption was re-elected, the index was 55%.
The Workers’ Party, to which the prime minister belongs, currently has 33% approval, and would not be able to form a coalition government with close parties, such as Verde, which has 9% of support from the population, and Maori, which has 2%, according to Kantar.
Before the 2020 elections, this percentage was 46% – at the time, voters were extremely impressed with the Prime Minister’s conduct in the pandemic, which made New Zealand a world example in combating the virus, with strict quarantine, extensive testing and an effective communication strategy.
Since then, however, Covid is no longer the main concern of New Zealanders. Recently, the Central Bank of New Zealand announced that the country could enter a recession next year. Inflation is at 7.2%, the highest rate in nearly 30 years, and the cost of food, rent and gasoline continues to rise.
Meanwhile, instances of violence have spread across the territory, and the stabbing murder of an Auckland grocery worker in late November prompted grocery stores across the nation to close in solidarity. The government has hired hundreds of police officers, but it has struggled to keep the streets crime-free.
In a recent press conference, Jacinda admitted that this has been a challenging period for her administration. But she criticized the opposition which, according to her, does not even present proposals to deal with the problems the country is experiencing. “Our job is to move forward because we have the privilege to govern, and that’s what we’re doing.”
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