Ardern fought back tears during parts of her speech at a press conference on Thursday. She doesn’t have the strength to stand the job, she says.
– Let’s get married
She says that it is neither pressure nor scandals that make her resign.
– IAM a human. We give as much as we can for as long as we can, and then it’s over. For me it was time to go, she tells the newspaper.
The position of prime minister comes with a responsibility, and that responsibility also means that she must step back when she has nothing more to give, she says, fighting back tears.
Her last day as Prime Minister will be February 7. New elections will take place on 14 October.
Then she had a personal message for her daughter, and for cohabitant and TV host Clarke Gayford:
– To Neve, mum is looking forward to being there when you start school next year. And to Clarke, let’s get married.
The couple has been engaged since 2019.
Tough years
– I am not leaving my job because it was difficult. If that had been the reason, I would have quit after two months, Ardern said.
She has been prime minister for five and a half years, dealing with the pandemic, climate change, the 2019 Christchurch terror attacks and a deadly volcanic eruption.
– Her departure was shocking, but not entirely surprising, says Bryce Edwards at the University of Victoria to CNN.
TERROR: In 2019 participated Photo: MARTY MELVILLE
One of the world’s youngest
Ardner’s rapid rise to power must be called a cometary career. She was only 37 when she became prime minister in 2017. She was then pregnant with her daughter Neve, and Ardner is the second prime minister in world history to give birth while in power.
Wow. This quote from Jacinda Ardern’s resignation: ‘Hope I leave New Zealanders with a belief that you can be kind but strong, empathetic but decisive, optimistic but focused…that you can be your own kind of leader, one who knows when it’s time to go’..
pic.twitter.com/gsBc09qij3— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) January 19, 2023
She was met with recognition in the international political arena for a fresh and empathetic approach to the role of prime minister.
Her popularity has nevertheless fallen in New Zealand in recent years, and several of the latest opinion polls in 2022 were at their lowest point since she took power, according to Radio New Zealand.
Although several international figures pay tribute to her on Twitter tonight, there are also reactions where people from New Zealand celebrate her departure and point to her strict corona policy as a particularly good reason why they are happy that she is leaving.
No obvious new candidate
Labour, the party she represents, will elect a new party leader on Sunday. Whoever is elected will also sit as prime minister until the new election in October. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson has made it clear that he does not want to become party leader.
According to Bryce Edwards of the University of Victoria, no heir apparent is ready.
