Threats against Jacinda Ardern have almost tripled over three years

Anti-vaccination is one of the major reasons behind spike in threats

Threats against New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern have reportedly almost tripled over the last three years amid pushback against Covid-19 vaccination.

Threats to Ms Ardern that involved the police have spiked from 18 in 2019 to 50 in 2021, according to data provided to Newshub under the Official Information Act. In 2020, police recorded 32 threats against the prime minister.

Ms Ardern faced severe abuse and backlash from anti-vaccine groups for mandating vaccines and imposing strict Covid-19 restrictions. The opposition to regulating firearms following the March 2019 terror attacks in Christchurch was also a contributing factor to the rise in threats.

In February, the New Zealand police clashed with demonstrators and arrested over 100 anti-vaccine protesters from parliament grounds.

Anti-mandate protester Richard Trevor Sivell was arrested in March and charged with threatening to kill the prime minister. However, the 39-year-old absconded after appearing at the Tauranga district court in April.

Last month, a 30-year-old man was arrested for posting a threatening message to assassinate Ms Arden on Reddit.

In March, a man was sentenced to a year in prison for sending an email to the prime minister, threatening to “personally wipe you off this f***ing planet”.

“A lightning rod kind of issue was that of the vaccine mandate because it had real impacts on people in terms of their employment prospects,” Suze Wilson, a senior lecturer and leadership scholar at Massey University, told the broadcaster.

She added that the “rise of consumption and engagement with conspiratorialist perspectives is driving how people perceive the prime minister”.

Authorities said it was not possible to determine the motivation for several threats as they were simply “offensive, obscene or threatening words directed at the PM”.