RTThu, 19 Jan 2023 01:51 UTC
© GettyJacinda Ardern announces her resignation.
Jacinda Ardern will leave her Labour Party without a leader in an election year.New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern has announced her resignation as Prime Minister and Labour Party leader, saying more than five years in office had left her exhausted and that she did not have the energy needed to continue in the role.
Ardern announced the decision on Thursday afternoon, saying she had reflected on her future as PM during the New Zealand parliament's summer break and determined she would prefer to spend more time with her family.
"I'm 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," she told attendees at the Labour Party's caucus retreat in the city of Napier. "I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It's that simple."A recent poll showed support for the Labour Party at its lowest since she first took office in 2017 as the world's youngest female head of state, but Ardern denied it affected the decision. "I'm not leaving because I believe we can't win the election, but because I believe we can and will, and we need a fresh set of shoulders for that challenge," she insisted.Ardern will leave the PM's office no later than February 7, but will remain the electorate MP for Auckland's Mount Albert region until April.
The next general election is scheduled for October 14, and it remains unclear who could replace her until then, as deputy leader and finance chief Grant Robertson said he would not seek the position despite being considered an immediate frontrunner.
Labour now has one week to determine if another candidate can earn more than two-thirds support among the Labour Caucus. Should they fail to select a new leader, the contest would broaden to a vote involving the entire Labour Party.
Comment: Don't let the door hit you on the way out! One wonders if Ardern was perhaps asked to leave given her
plunging popularity.
More from the
Daily Sceptic:
Jacinda Ardern's Resignation is an Admission of Failure
Rejoice! The Toothy Tyrant is no more. Jacinda Arden, the "kind" and "empathetic" Queen of Woke who would lock her people in their homes for months on end following the appearance of a single case of COVID-19 and turned her island nation into a prison has announced she is to step down. With the economy tanking and her party headed for almost certain defeat in the election later this year, it can only be taken as an admission of failure. Her fanatical pursuit of zero-Covid, which involved the roll-out of vaccine passports, the sacking of workers who refused to get jabbed and had a catastrophic impact on the New Zealand economy, has had disastrous consequences. Ross Clark has written a suitably gloating piece in the Telegraph titled, 'Poor Jacinda Ardern, defeated by her own vanity' with the blurb: "She believed her own myth - that she was the most virtuous leader in the world. Then came the consequences of her disastrous actions."
...
Ross worries that by resigning before an almost inevitable defeat at the polls, "she will come to be seen by progressives as a political martyr, reinforcing their belief in her greatness, as a female leader who willingly gave up power to be with her family". The reality, however, is that "she failed in much that she tried to achieve, and the hero-worship which she enjoyed around the world made things worse by adding to her hubris".
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Perfect comment!