Unable to withstand the pressure of holding the country’s top executive post, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that she is resigning.<\/p>\n
In a news conference announcing her surprise decision at the Labor Party’s summer caucus retreat Thursday, Ardern said she will step down as Labor leader and Prime Minister by February 7.<\/p>\n
She said she expects her successor will be sworn in by that time, though “depending on the process that could be earlier.”<\/p>\n
She cited a desire to spend more time with her partner and four-year-old daughter and an inability to commit to another four years.<\/p>\n
“Leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have, but also the most challenging. You cannot and should not do the job unless you have a full tank, plus a bit in reserve for those unplanned and unexpected challenges,” Ardern told reporters. <\/p>\n
“I no longer have enough in the tank to do the job justice,” she added.<\/p>\n
Ardern, who became the youngest female head of government in the world at the age of 37 in 2017, was re-elected for a second term in 2020. She steps down when nine more months are remaining in her term.<\/p>\n
Within a year of assuming the office of prime minister, she became only the second world leader ever to give birth while in power.<\/p>\n
With the next parliamentary election due in October, opinion polls indicate Adern’s personal popularity is at its lowest, and the ruling Labour Party’s chances of re-election are grim.<\/p>\n
During Ardern’s past five-and-a-half years at the helm, New Zealand witnessed the pandemic and its ensuing recession, the deadly Christchurch terror attack, and the White Island volcanic eruption.<\/p>\n
“These events… have been taxing because of the weight, the sheer weight and continual nature of them. There’s never really been a moment where it’s ever felt like we were just governing,” she told reporters. <\/p>\n