Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Thursday she is stepping down as New Zealand’s leader and will not contest this year’s general elections.
Fighting back tears, Ardern told reporters in Napier that Feb. 7 will be her last day in office.
“I am not leaving because it was hard. Had that been the case I probably would have departed two months into the job. I am 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 is that simple,” she said.
Ardern had faced a tough election campaign this year. Her liberal Labour Party won reelection two years ago in a landslide of historic proportions, but recent polls have put her party behind its conservative rivals.
She was lauded globally for her country’s initial handling of the coronavirus pandemic after New Zealand managed for months to stop the virus at its borders. But it’s zero-tolerance strategy was abandoned once it was challenged by new variants and vaccines became available.
She faced tougher criticism at home that the strategy was too strict.
Ardern in December announced a Royal Commission of Inquiry would look into whether the government made the right decisions in battling COVID-19 and how it can better prepare for future pandemics. Its report is due next year.
(AP)
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3 Responses
She was a great leader in difficult times but could not defy the laws of political gravity when the long-standing and chronic issues of inflation, white supremacy, domestic crime and political polarization reemerged in the post-covid world. Her personal libertarian streak also seemed totally out of place in a social media world of relentless intrusion into the personal lives of our political leaders with zero privacy.
awful and remarkable that one doesn’t know before hand what their capacities are….no, she is being tossed and or someone is bullying her…shame….whatever occurs it will include hatred towards Jews….always does…..
Personal Libertarian streak? I know nothing about her other that what happened during COVID. She turned her entire country into an island jail, no one in and no one out, for many long seemingly unending months!