Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister, women and quadra, announced her surprising retirement – Liberation
“I just don’t have enough energy anymore”. In simple words but completely unheard of in world politics, Jacinda Ardern, 42, New Zealand’s prime minister since 2017, announced her retirement on Thursday, shocking her country. He will leave office on February 7, nine months before legislative elections, for which reason he will not be leading the battle.
“I am human. We give as much as we can and for as long as we can, and it’s time. And for me, that moment has come.”he explained in front of his fellow Laborers. “These five and a half years have been the most fulfilling of my life. But there are also challenges to overcome. I know what this job demands, and I know I don’t have enough energy left to do it justice. As simple as that”, he added, announcing his retirement.
Jacinda Ardern led a coalition government in 2017, aged 37, becoming the country’s youngest prime minister since 1856. She then led the center-left Labor Party to a landslide victory in its next election, three years later. During his tenure, he faced the Covid-19 pandemic, deadly volcanic eruptions and the country’s worst attack, the killing of 51 Muslim worshipers at a Christchurch mosque by a white supremacist in 2019.
She is the second head of government in the world to give birth during her tenure after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto. And she caused quite a stir when she brought her three-month-old daughter, Neve, to the UN podium in September 2018. “I want to normalize thishe argued. By being more open, it can pave the way for other women.”
Very popular abroad, where he made the cover of magazines mode and Time, he has long enjoyed record approval ratings in New Zealand as well, where the media occasionally talks about him “Jacindamania”. After winning a second term thanks to Labor’s landslide victory in the 2020 legislative elections, Ardern has seen a decline in popularity in recent years for various reasons: the deteriorating economic situation, declining confidence in her government, the rise of the conservative opposition. .
“Worst political post”
And the stress he’s been under in recent years has shaken him sometimes. In December, after a heated argument with opposition leader David Seymour, his murmurs were caught by his microphone, which was still on: “What an arrogant bastard!” He was able to make up for it, with a good dose of self-mockery, by auctioning off the parliamentary report in which the insult appeared to raise funds to fight cancer.
Born in 1980 in Hamilton, 130km south of Auckland, Jacinda Ardern says it was the poverty she saw in the interior of the North Island that helped shape her leftist beliefs. The daughter of a police officer, she was raised in the Mormon faith, which she renounced in the 2000s because of this Church’s position on homosexuality.
He was interested in politics early on thanks to an aunt, and joined a youth labor organization. After his studies he worked for Prime Minister Helen Clark, then in London for Tony Blair. “Everyone knows that I just received without notice the worst political position”he declared when he became the youngest leader in the century-old history of the Labor Party.
He didn’t think well to say: nearly eighteen months after taking office as Prime Minister, his country suffered a terrorist attack. A white supremacist opened fire at two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people and wounding 40. Ardern’s response was praised globally for her empathy, especially when she wore a hijab to offer condolences to a Muslim family.
He has also been praised for his tough policy actions, including gun restrictions, and for his efforts to force social media giants to tackle hate speech online. His health policies against the coronavirus, which prompted him to close the archipelago’s borders, were also highly appreciated by New Zealanders.
