Why is New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stepping down?
Once the world’s youngest female head of government, Ardern has announced her resignation after six years in the role.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has shocked the world by announcing that she will stand down as the nation’s leader within the next month. She has been in the role for six years but does not wish to stay on to fight this year’s general election.
In her resignation announcement she said that her time in New Zealand’s top office had been “challenging”, but said she felt honoured to have been Prime Minister.
“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It’s that simple,” she said.
She will remain Prime Minister until 7 February, at the latest, but she will remain an MP until the national election on 14 October.
Why has Jacinda Ardern resigned?
She became the world’s youngest female national leader when she won election in 2017 at the age of 37. But her time as Prime Minister has coincided with a number of major events that have limited her ability to enact the sort of change that she set out to.
The 42-year-old said that she had actively pondered her future last summer. After leading the nation through not only the covid-19 pandemic, but also the Christchurch mosque shooting and White Island volcanic eruption, she decided that she is unable to continue.
“I had hoped that I would find what I needed to carry on over that period but, unfortunately, I haven’t, and I would be doing a disservice to New Zealand to continue,” she said.
“It’s one thing to lead your country through peace time, it’s another to lead them through crisis.”
In recent months her popularity has dipped in opinion polls, but she insisted that this was not a reason for her departure from top office.
Ardern resigns as a ground-breaking world leader
When asked how she hoped to be remembered by New Zealanders, Ardern said that she wanted to be known simply “as someone who always tried to be kind.”
As well as being remarkably young when she first entered office, in 2018 she became only the second-ever world leader to give birth while in the role.
Speaking to reporters after announcing her resignation, she said that she wanted to spend more time with her family after leaving office. She described her partner, Clark Gayford, and their daughter Neve as “the ones that have sacrificed the most out of all of us”.
Her Australian counterpart, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said that Ardern had “shown the world how to lead with intellect and strength.
“She has demonstrated that empathy and insight are powerful leadership qualities… Jacinda has been a fierce advocate for New Zealand, an inspiration to so many and a great friend to me.”