The 42 -year -old leader will leave office on February 7. “I no longer have enough energy” to continue, she explained, Thursday, during a meeting of her party.
by Isabelle Dellerba (Sydney, Correspondence)
It is on the verge of tears, the sometimes a little trembling voice that Jacinda Ardern, the head of the New Zealand government, announced, Thursday, January 19, its decision to resign. The one who had become, in October 2017, the youngest Prime Minister Kiwie in a hundred and sixty and a year before being triumphantly re -elected in October 2020, will leave her duties by February 7. An announcement that has created a shock wave in the archipelago as it is rare as a leader gives up power, especially when he enjoys the popularity of the 42 -year -old leader.
“I gave everything to be Prime Minister, but it also cost me a lot. You cannot and should not do this job unless you have a full tank, and even more in reserve for Unforeseen and unexpected challenges that inevitably arise, “she said at a press conference. “I simply have enough energy for four more years,” added the elected Labor who, in the past five years, turned out to be solid as a rock when a succession of crises has shaken his country : From the mass killing committed by a white supremacist in two mosques of Christchurch, on March 15, 2019, upon arrival of COVVI-19, in February 2020, passing by the eruption of the White Island volcano, December 9 2019, during which 21 people died.
His calm, his determination and the quality of his leadership had earned him to be appointed, by a survey carried out in May 2020, as the most popular New Zealand government for a century and to stand out on The international scene as “anti-Trump”, according to the nickname given by certain English-speaking media. “She has shown that we could be a benevolent and competent leader, analyzes Jennifer Lees-Marshment, professor of political marketing at the University of Auckland, and also a head of government and mother.”
It was by becoming the second prime minister in the world to have a child during his mandate, after the Pakistaniise Benazir Bhutto, that the center left manager first made known abroad. The former amateur DJ had announced the birth of his daughter on social networks in June 2018, before disappearing for six weeks of maternity leave, reinforcing, in his country, his image of simplicity and normality. Qualities that had already earned him a flash ascent on the New Zealand political scene. Propelled candidate for less than two months from the legislative elections of September 2017 and placed at the head of a Labor party then accusing almost 20 points behind her rival in the polls, she had, against all expectations, returned the Conservatives to the opposition ranks after nine years of reign.
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