New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Surprise Resignation

Visibly emotional, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern surprised her fellow citizens and media across the Asia-Pacific region on Thursday by announcing that she would step down in less than a month. “I am entering my sixth year in Parliament. In each of these years, I have given everything I had to give,” the leader whispered through sobs at a news conference.

Jacinda Ardern, 42, will remain in office until February 7 while her centre-left majority determines her successor. She will hold her position as MP until the next general election, due on October 14, 2023, but will not seek re-election. “I am leaving because such a distinguished role comes with responsibilities, including knowing when you are the right person to lead, and also when you are not. I know what this job entails, and I know that I no longer have the strength to do it well. It is as simple as that,” she explained.

Country in the spotlight

She discovered activism after leaving high school, and entered parliament in 2008 before becoming prime minister in a coalition government in 2017. She then led the Labour Party to power in 2020. Once in power, her freshness, outspokenness and youthfulness stood out. The incident caught the attention of international media, and suddenly put New Zealand and its five million people in the spotlight.

In the Asia-Pacific region, whose CEOs are often dominated by elderly politicians, she has become an icon for a segment of the region's youth who follow her on Twitter (800,000 followers) or Instagram (1.7 million followers).

In 2018, she became the first sitting female head of government to take six weeks of maternity leave, a move that was met with local and international acclaim. Her compassion and comments following the Christchurch mosque shootings, which left 51 people dead at two mosques in March 2019, also went viral around the world.

But the massive popularity that won him a landslide election victory in 2020 has eroded significantly in recent quarters. Part of the population has criticized him for his particularly strict health policy in the face of the Covid pandemic. If the country’s lockdown was initially welcomed, the slow pace of reopening was later widely criticized, especially by economic leaders. They believe his strategy has hampered the recovery in growth in the country, whose borders were only fully reopened last July.

His party is in difficulty

In December, Jacinda Ardern announced that a commission of inquiry would examine whether the government had made the right decisions in its fight against Covid. Its report is expected next year. With a health record of 505 deaths per million inhabitants, New Zealand is statistically one of the countries in the world that has managed the crisis “best”. In France, the ratio is 2,522 deaths per million, five times that.

Following the announcement of his departure, Labor indicated that it would immediately begin the search for a new leader. Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson announced that he would not stand and would therefore not lead the party in what is expected to be a very tough legislative campaign, especially against the National Party led by Christopher Luxon, the former CEO of Air New Zealand. The opposition leader welcomed the resignation of the chief executive in a tweet on Thursday. “On behalf of the National Party, I thank Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her service to New Zealand. She has given her all to this very demanding role and I wish her and her family the very best for the future.”