Jacinda Ardern explained Thursday’s decision to step down as New Zealand’s prime minister with a plea for sympathy and rare political frankness – attributes that have made her a global icon of liberalism. anti-Trump, then the target of malicious division amplified by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms. Ardern, 42, held back tears as she announced at a press conference that she will resign in early February before New Zealand’s election in October.
“I know what this job entails and I know that I no longer have the guts to do it fairly,” she said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Ardern’s sudden departure before the end of her second term surprised the country and the world. As New Zealand’s youngest prime minister in 150 years, she is the leader of a small nation that has become a celebrity with the speed of a pop star.
Her youth, pronounced feminism and emphasis on “kind politics” led many to see her as a welcome alternative to flamboyant male leaders, creating a phenomenon. called “Jacindamania.“
However, her time in office was largely shaped by crisis management, including terrorist attack in 2019 in ChristchurchDeadly white island volcano erupts months later and Covid-19 soon after.
In particular, the pandemic seems to play to her strengths as a clear and unifying communicator – until prolonged lockdowns and vaccine regulations take a toll on the industry. economy, fueling conspiracy theories and sparking backlash. In a part of the world where Covid restrictions linger, Ms. Ardern has struggled to move beyond her connection to pandemic policy.
Richard Shaw, professor of politics at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, said: “People have been personally invested in her, which has always been part of her appeal.
He has become a totem, he added. “She has embodied an exceptional response to the pandemic, which people in remote parts of the internet and those not so far away have used against her.”
The country’s initial goals were bold: Ms Ardern and several prominent epidemiologists who are advising the government have raised hopes of eliminating the virus and keeping it out of New Zealand entirely. . In early 2020, she helped pacify the country—”our team of five million people,” she said — to go along with international border closures and lockdowns so tight that even taking a lost cricket ball from a neighbor’s yard is banned.
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When new, more contagious variants made that impossible, Ms. Ardern’s team pivoted but struggled to get a vaccine quickly. At that time, strict vaccination regulations prevented people from doing activities such as working, eating out, and cutting their hair.
Dr Simon Thornley, an epidemiologist at the University of Auckland, said many New Zealanders were amazed at what they saw when she was ready to vaccinate unvaccinated people.
Dr Thornley said: “Disillusionment around vaccine regulations is critical. “The creation of a two-class society and those projections did not go as they intended, or as they were predicted to be scrapped – it was a turning point.”
Ms. Ardern has become a target, at home and abroad, for those who see the duty of vaccination as a violation of personal rights. Online, conspiracy theories, misinformation and personal attacks flourish: Threats against Ms. Ardern has increased a lot over the past few years, especially from anti-vaccination groups.
The Tensions escalated in February last year. Partly inspired by protests in the United States and Canada, a crowd of protesters camped on the grounds of Parliament in Wellington for more than three weeks, pitching tents and using parked cars to block traffic. pine.
Police eventually forced the protesters to disperse, clashing violently with many of them, resulting in more than 120 arrests.
These scenes shocked a country unaccustomed to such violence. Some blamed the protesters, others blamed the police and the government.
Dr Thornley said: “It was certainly a dark day in New Zealand history.
Dylan Reeve, a New Zealand author and journalist who has written a book on the spread of misinformation in the country, says the prime minister’s international profile could play some role in the stories of conspirators about her.
“The fact that she suddenly has such a large international profile and is widely praised for her response really seems to have given an impetus to local conspiracy theorists,” he said. “They have found support for anti-Ardern ideas from like-minded individuals across the globe to a degree that may well exceed New Zealand’s typical international prominence. “
The attacks don’t stop even after the worst of the pandemic has passed. This month, Roger J. Stone Jr., a former Trump adviser, condemned Ms. Ardern for her Covid approach, which he described as the “booty of authoritarianism”.
In her speech on Thursday, Ms. Ardern did not mention any specific critics, nor name a replacement, but she acknowledged that she could not help being affected by the tension at work. work and difficult times when she was in power. .
“I know there will be a lot of discussion after this decision about the so-called real reasons,” she said, adding: “The only interesting thing that you will find is that after six years of going through some challenges. big , that I am human. Politicians are human. We give everything we can, as long as we can, and then the time has come. And for me, the time has come.”
Suze Wilson, a leadership scholar at Massey University in New Zealand, said Ms Ardern should take her word for it. She says abuse cannot and should not separate her gender.
Professor Wilson said: “She was talking about really not having anything left in the tank, and I think part of the reason that could contribute to that is just the disgusting level of sexism and discrimination and abuse a woman for what she suffers.
In the pubs and parks of Christchurch on Thursday, New Zealanders appeared divided. In a city where Ms. Ardern was widely praised for her unifying response to 51 people massacre at two mosques by a white supremacistThere have been complaints about unfulfilled promises around basics like housing costs.
Tony McPherson, 72, who lives near one of the mosques that was attacked nearly four years ago, described the outgoing prime minister as someone who “has a good talk but not enough walking.”
He said she lacked “housing, healthcare” and had “made it difficult for immigrants,” arguing that many businesses lacked large staff because of the delayed reopening of borders after close the door.
Economic issues are of prime importance to many voters. Polls show Ms Ardern’s Labor Party trailing the centre-right National Party, led by Christopher Luxon, a former aviation executive.
On the deck of Wilson’s Sports Bar, a pub in Christchurch, Shelley Smith, 52, the motel manager, said she was “surprised” by the news of Ms Ardern’s resignation. She praised her for stopping the spread of coronavirus in the community in 2020, despite the effects on the New Zealand economy. When asked how she would remember Ms. Ardern, she replied: “as a person.”
That call may have faded, but many New Zealanders don’t expect Ms Ardern to be gone for long. Helen Clark, a former prime minister who served as an adviser to Ms. Ardern, has continued her time in office by focusing on international affairs with a variety of global organisations.
“I didn’t know she was going to disappear from this world,” Professor Shaw said of Ms. Ardern. “She can get a bigger platform.”
Emanuel Stoakes, Frozen Natasha and Livia Albeck-Ripka contribution report.
