AP, Christchurch, New Zealand :
The attributes that helped Jacinda Ardern rise to become New Zealand’s leader at age 37 include her optimistic outlook and bright personality. And she became an inspiration to working women around the world last year when she gave birth to a daughter, Neve.
But the prime minister is now displaying other qualities to an anxious nation after a gunman on Friday slaughtered 50 people at two Christchurch mosques. She’s shown a determination to change gun laws and a deep empathy with the families of the victims and the Muslim community.
On Friday afternoon at a simple table laid in a hotel conference room in New Plymouth, a city on New Zealand’s North Island, Ardern told the nation about the shootings. Details were sparse, but her shaken demeanor, a tremor in her voice, made it clear the situation was grave.
Mass shootings were almost unheard of in New Zealand. People wanted reassurance and information.
When she next spoke from Parliament in Wellington she was calmer, more resolute. She gave details of a mounting death toll and of an offender in custody, an Australian man who had chosen New Zealand for his crime. “You may have chosen us,” she said. “We utterly reject and condemn you.”
When President Donald Trump called Ardern to offer his sympathies and ask what assistance the U.S. might provide, Ardern said she would welcome sympathy and love toward Muslim communities. It was a rebuke, of sorts, toward the perception of Trump as being anti-Islamic.
On Friday, Ardern flew to Christchurch. She donned a simple hijab and met with families of those killed and wounded.
At a refugee center, she told Muslim leaders that the country was united in its grief.
“This is not New Zealand,” she said. “The only part of the incident and actions that we have seen over the past 24, 36 hours that is New Zealand is the support that you are seeing now.”
Ardern did not avoid the thorny political issues arising from the shooting, the question of how the gunman obtained five firearms, including two military-style weapons. New Zealand’s liberal gun laws allow easier access to those weapons than in Australia. “I can tell you right now our gun laws will change,” she said.
