Jacinda Ardern, then still the Prime Minister of New Zealand, found herself in an airport bathroom when an unknown person got very close to her. The woman stood right next to her, Ardern recalls in her recently published memoir A Different Kind of Power. “I just wanted to say thank you,” said the woman, whom Ardern describes as inexplicably angry. “Thank you for destroying the country.”
The American left-leaning magazine The New Yorker published an article about the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and once-star of the global left, who was once loudly praised by the media. In recent years, she’s rarely mentioned. She has disappeared not only from public life but also from her own country. She moved to the United States, and according to The New Yorker, the main reason for the move was the anger of New Zealanders over how Ardern handled the COVID crisis.
She served just under two full terms as Prime Minister. In the 2017 election, her Labour Party won fewer votes and parliamentary seats than the National Party. However, Ardern managed to gain the support of the far-right NZ First party and formed a government with them and the Greens. In the next election in 2020, her party won a convincing victory, allowing her to form a government independently. It was seen as proof of New Zealanders’ satisfaction with the policies and reforms she had implemented.
That election was held during the height of the COVID crisis. By then, New Zealand had already undergone the strictest lockdown in the world. Ardern had adopted a “Covid Zero” policy — strict lockdown until eradication. The entire country was in quarantine for months. Given New Zealand’s geographic isolation, she initially succeeded in keeping infection and death rates very low. Journalists around the world celebrated this, often pointing to her policies as a model for others.
Judging by the 2020 election results, most New Zealanders didn’t initially mind such restrictions. However, the very next year things changed dramatically. When the first new COVID case was detected, Ardern immediately declared another full nationwide lockdown. She nearly shut down the entire economy and social life. People began to realize something was seriously wrong with her approach.
The situation culminated in mass protests in Auckland and Wellington in early 2022. While restrictions were being lifted elsewhere and countries were reopening, New Zealand remained in quarantine. Ardern quickly transformed from a heroine into a national embarrassment. Even some popular British and American media outlets began criticizing her zero-tolerance policy toward the virus. People simply weren’t willing to sacrifice their social and economic lives out of fear of a virus. The public became deeply polarized, and this gradually turned into widespread unrest.
After Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the media seemed to forget COVID had ever existed, and Jacinda Ardern abruptly resigned as Prime Minister without giving a coherent explanation. She didn’t even finish her second term. Many speculated that she wanted to avoid facing inevitable defeat in the next election. In 2023, her party was ousted from power, and a new government was formed by National and ACT. In that election, the classical liberal ACT party achieved a historic result — largely due to its leader, David Seymour, being an active critic of lockdowns and Ardern’s “zero COVID” policy.
However, Ardern didn’t just leave politics. She left her country — quietly — and has since tried to keep New Zealanders as unaware of her as possible. Imagine the shame of not being able to look your fellow citizens in the eye. History might be especially harsh on those who used the crisis and media panic to exert excessive control over their citizens — but for some, that reckoning has already arrived.
The New Yorker expresses astonishment that such a heroine, who saved so many lives, could become reviled in her own country, blaming conspiracy theories and social media for her fall from grace. But it’s astonishing how some people still can’t accept something so simple: it’s not okay to lock people up and treat them like lab rats — they just might resent you for it.
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