His decision took New Zealand by surprise. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday, January 19, that she would leave office as of February 7.
At an annual meeting of the Labor Party, to which she belongs, the leader felt that she no longer had enough energy to carry out her task:
“I am leaving because a position with such great privileges comes with great responsibilities. The responsibility of knowing when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. I know what this job demands. And I know I don’t have enough energy left to do it justice. It’s as simple as that. »
The Prime Minister also announced that general elections would be held in the country on October 14, 2023.
In office since 2017, Jacinda Ardern was an atypical politician. Appointed Prime Minister at 37, she is the youngest to hold the highest office in the history of her country. She also became the following year the second head of government in the world to have had a child during her term.
His management of the pandemic hailed
Very popular in her country, she had affected the whole world after the attacks on two mosques in Christchurch in March 2019, which killed 51 people. The New Zealand Prime Minister did not hesitate to wear the veil to visit bereaved Muslim families, conveying the image of a tolerant and supportive leader. When US President Donald Trump asked her how to help her country in the aftermath of this attack perpetrated by a white supremacist, Jacinda Ardern suggested that she send “sympathy and love to Muslims”.
Its management of the Covid-19 pandemic had also been acclaimed: it had quickly closed the borders and opted for severe confinement. The voters had not held it against him: the Labor Party had won its highest score for fifty years in October 2020.
But the economic crisis caused by the pandemic had ended up, in recent months, causing its popularity to drop.