Jacinda Ardern’s “personal reasons” for stepping down as New Zealand PM

The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, has announced her resignation as head of government early this Thursday, calling elections for next October 14. These five years have exhausted her and she can’t wait until the elections. “I am not leaving because we are doing poorly in the polls,” she said, accompanied by the father of her daughter Te Aroha, four years old, whom she had when she was prime minister.

The president has communicated this during a press conference, detailing that she will be in the position until next February 7, when the Labor Party that she leads finds a new person to occupy the position of prime minister. “Having such a privileged role entails a responsibility, including the responsibility of knowing when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not,” she justified, detailing that it was a decision that she had been reflecting on since the summer.

Ardern, 42, took office as prime minister in August 2017, when she was 37, becoming the youngest person in the country’s history to hold the post. Then, she came to power after agreeing a government alliance with the Greens and the New Zealand Nationalists First, ending a decade of Conservative rule.

Personal reasons

The prime minister has explained that she is leaving for “personal reasons”, although in the political media there is talk that her party is behind in the polls. “I have given my all, but it has also cost me a lot. I cannot and should not do the job unless I have a full tank plus a little in reserve for those unplanned and unexpected challenges that inevitably present themselves,” said the New Zealander. .

Ardern has maintained that behind his decision there is no “no secret scandal”. “I’m human. We give everything we can for as long as we can and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time,” she said.

During this five-year period, in addition to facing the Covid pandemic, terrorism and other serious problems, the Prime Minister of New Zealand and her family have been subjected to continuous media pressure. Her husband, the television presenter Clarke Gayford, He came to receive compensation a year ago from a medium that had published false comments about him.

On March 25, NZME Radio made comments about him both on a podcast and on social media pages that the prime minister’s husband called “harmful and untrue,” Gayford said in a statement, calling the posts “hearsay.” and baseless lies,” he said. NZME Radio apologized for these posts but the “pain and anguish” these attacks brought to the family did a lot of damage. Ardern and Gayford were going to get married when Covid surprised them and they postponed the wedding, like so many couples. Ardern took 6 weeks maternity leave as Prime Minister and then her partner (they did not marry) took over parental care.

World focus on New Zealand

Jacinda Ardern has drawn global media attention to New Zealand during her tenure. She effectively faced the coronavirus pandemic, a bloody terrorist attack and several earthquakes, all this while she was first pregnant and then with a baby. They say that at the age of 13 she only wanted to be a clown “to make children laugh.”

Now, the party must choose this Sunday, January 22, the new leader of the Labor Party and the new prime minister. Meanwhile, the person elected must govern until October 14, when the general elections are held, according to the aforementioned newspaper.

The New Zealand prime minister has stressed that she is confident that Labor will be able to win the elections without her, ensuring that “a new set of shoulders” is necessary for the challenges of the next four years.

“I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished in the last five years despite the many challenges that lie ahead. We have turned the statistics on child poverty on its head and achieved the most significant increases in social support and public housing stocks that have been seen in many decades”, Ardern has highlighted from his period in front of the Government.

“In addition to our ambitious agenda that has sought to address long-term issues like the housing crisis, child poverty, and climate change, we also had to respond to a major biosecurity raid, a domestic terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, and a global pandemic, and the consequent economic crisis. The decisions that have had to be made have been constant and weighty,” he added.