She had promised “relentless positivity” as New Zealand’s prime minister. But five and a half years after taking office, it was an exhausted Jacinda Ardern who announced her resignation on Thursday.
This 42-year-old Labor member, elected prime minister in October 2017, was not spared during her first term: the worst terrorist attack ever seen in New Zealand, a deadly volcanic eruption and, as elsewhere, the Covid-19 pandemic.
“These five and a half years have been the most fulfilling of my life. But there have also been challenges to overcome,” Ms Ardern said on Thursday.
“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, ”she added, announcing her resignation.
Elected to lead the country at just 37, she became New Zealand’s youngest prime minister since 1856 and a symbol of liberalism.
During her campaign, the leader, carried by an impressive wave of sympathy nicknamed “Jacindamania” by the media, had been compared to Frenchman Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Justin Trudeau, two other young leaders.
Propelled on August 1, 2017 at the head of a beleaguered New Zealand opposition, Jacinda Ardern had enabled Labor to make an incredible rise in the polls, embodying the promise of a generational “change”.
A shame for the one who claimed to have never before imagined running for the post of Prime Minister one day.
After winning a second term thanks to the landslide victory of Labor in the 2020 legislative elections, Ms. Ardern has experienced a drop in popularity in recent years for multiple reasons: deterioration of the economic situation, decline in confidence in her government, resurgence of the conservative opposition.
And the stress she has experienced in recent years has sometimes made her waver. In December, after a heated exchange with opposition leader David Seymour, his mumblings were picked up by his microphone, always on: “What an arrogant asshole! »
She had been able to make up for it, with a good dose of self-mockery, by auctioning the parliamentary report in which the insult appeared in order to raise funds to fight against cancer.
Born in 1980 in Hamilton, 130km south of Auckland, Jacinda Ardern says it was the poverty she saw in the North Island outback that helped shape her leftist beliefs .
Daughter of a policeman, she was raised in the Mormon faith, which she renounced in the 2000s because of the positions of this Church on homosexuality.
She took an early interest in politics thanks to an aunt, and joined the labor youth organizations. After her studies, she worked for Prime Minister Helen Clark, then in London for Tony Blair.
“Everyone knows that I have just accepted without warning the worst political post,” she declared as she became the youngest leader in the centenary history of the Labor Party.
She did not think so well to say: barely 18 months after taking office as Prime Minister, her country suffered a terrorist attack. A white supremacist opens fire at two mosques in Christchurch, killing 51 people and injuring 40.
Ardern’s reaction is hailed globally for her empathy, especially when she wears a headscarf while offering her condolences to Muslim families.
She has also been applauded for her decisive policy actions, including restrictions on guns, and for her efforts to compel social media giants to tackle hate speech online.
Its health policy against the coronavirus, which prompted it to close the borders of the archipelago, has also been highly appreciated by New Zealanders.
During the coronavirus crisis, Ms Ardern has repeatedly urged New Zealanders to ‘show kindness’, calling for a unified approach from what she calls a ‘team of five million’. .