Jacinda Ardern may be dodging humiliation by quitting now – but she’s sure of a lasting place as a star | Adam Boulton
At a time when ageing rockstars are embarking on seemingly endless farewell tours, and the US is contemplating a presidential election between two octogenarian men, the world’s most famous female political superstar will be out of office and out of parliament before her 43rd birthday in July.
At a news conference on the North Island, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the shock announcement that she is stepping down in a little over a fortnight’s time on 7 February.
In the meantime, the New Zealand Labour Party will choose a new leader. In April, there will be a by-election to replace Ms Ardern in her constituency in Mount Albert. Ms Ardern also announced that she was calling a general election for 14 October this year.
Ms Ardern’s five and a half years of political leadership and her manner of leaving it have been unique and will be the subject of comment for years to come.
Nonetheless, by this summer she will be out of politics and her future plans are vague beyond this message for her five-year-old daughter and her partner Clarke Gayford, a television presenter: “To Neve: Mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year. And to Clarke – let’s finally get married.”
Ms Ardern was not a record-breaker for her sex or age, either nationally or internationally. She is New Zealand’s third woman prime minister, following Jenny Shipley and the long-serving Helen Clark, who Ms Ardern worked for.
Yet Ms Ardern has been a star from the moment she emerged in 2017, aged just 37, as prime minister of a coalition government. Many people beyond New Zealand were caught up in “Jacindamania”, seeing this self-styled “progressive” and “feminist” as the antithesis to populist authoritarian men such as Donald Trump who were enjoying power around that time.
She was soon featured on the magazine covers of Vogue and Time magazines, not bad for a leader of a small country of five million people.
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Ardern breaks down as she announces resignation
Ms Ardern bridled at comments which dwelt on her femininity. She slapped down reporters who suggested she was holding the first ever New Zealand bilateral with the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin because they were both young women. She said: “I wonder whether or not anyone ever asked Barack Obama and John Key if they met because they were of similar age.”
A farmer publicly apologised after brandishing a placard at a protest calling her a “Pretty Communist”.
‘You can be kind, but strong’
Ms Ardern’s tearful news conference announcing her departure could scarcely have been less Trumpian. She explained her reasons bluntly: “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.”
She concluded her statement by thanking New Zealanders for giving her “the greatest role in my life. I hope in return I leave behind a belief that you can be kind, but strong. Empathetic, but decisive. Optimistic, but focused. That you can be your own kind of leader – one that knows when it’s time to go”.
Ms Ardern’s two terms in power have been action-packed, as she noted: “We encountered a… domestic terror event, a major natural disaster, a global pandemic, and an economic crisis.”
In March 2019 she united the nation after the shooting attack on two mosques in Christchurch which left 51 people dead.
She insisted that the name of the perpetrator should not be used, while she said of the Muslim victims: “They are us.”
Ms Ardern with longtime partner Clarke Gayford
In December of that year, she had an equally strong and inclusive message when 21 people, many foreign tourists, were killed when the Whakaari volcano erupted on White Island. The closed borders and lockdown she ordered during the COVID pandemic resulted in a comparatively low number of deaths, some 2,500, in New Zealand.
Her decisive and empathetic style of leadership served her well politically. In the 2020 election, her popularity converted her coalition with other parties into an unprecedented overall majority for Labour in New Zealand’s proportional representation system.
Dodging humiliation
Perhaps New Zealand’s voters are now as exhausted as their prime minister. Opinion polls suggest Ms Ardern has dodged humiliation by stepping down now. At the upcoming general election, most observers expect her Labour party to lose office with the right-of-centre National Party to emerge victorious.
As elsewhere, inflation is running high in New Zealand. Ms Ardern admitted this week there have been challenges delivering her chosen domestic “agenda focused on housing, child poverty and climate change”.
Out of some 195 nations in the world, only around 17 have heads of government who are women. Well under 10%.
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Jacinda Arden’s legacy as New Zealand PM
Ms Ardern was only the second female head of government, after the late Benazir Bhutto, to give birth while in office. At her joint appearance with Prime Minister Marin, Ms Ardern accepted that they had responsibility as female leaders to women facing “dire circumstances” in countries such as Iran, and that they stood “to make sure every woman and girl all across the world will have the same rights and the same opportunities as men”.
This is still not even the case in the Westminster parliament. Noting that only one in four Conservative MPs are women, Baroness Jenkin dismissed Boris Johnson’s boasted goal of 50:50 as “fine words but very little actual engagement”.
Encountering sexism in parliament
Ms Ardern will be missed by the Council of World Women Leaders since she was its most prominent member following the retirement of Angela Merkel. Like her counterpart in Australia, she encountered sexism in parliament from her opponents; unlike Julia Gillard, she did not need to make a celebrated speech attacking misogyny.
Instead, she apologised for branding the leader of ACT NZ “an arrogant prick” after he asked, “Can the prime minister give us an example of making a mistake, apologising for it properly and fixing it?”.
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Ardern shoots down gender question
Ms Ardern’s qualities as a political leader are not unique to women, although they are most often found there. The same goes for the modesty with which she retreated from office: “I am human, politicians are human. We give all that we can for as long as we can. And then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.”
Read more:
From Jacindamania to an empty tank, how New Zealand PM’s empathy defined her role
Why Jacinda Ardern’s ‘rare’ admission about her mental health matters
Ardern’s rude curse of New Zealand opposition MP caught in hot mic moment
In political terms, Ms Ardern could be described as something similar to a “Blairite”. In the Noughties, she even worked on his government’s policies in the Cabinet office in London. She never met Tony Blair then. When she did a few years later she challenged him over the invasion of Iraq.
Ms Ardern hopes to live to see New Zealand become a republic, but she attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II with her partner and their daughter, wearing a Maori cape.
Perhaps Jacinda Ardern will return to politics in a few years’ time, perhaps she will be offered some international office, perhaps she will not. Either way, she’s sure of a lasting place as a star in the political firmament. She may well have written her own epitaph already: “Someone who always tried to be kind”.
World
Trump criticises Putin after potentially ‘historic’ meeting with Zelenskyy before Pope’s funeral
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Follow live updates: 200,000 mourn at Vatican
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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Russia and Ukraine have not held direct talks since the early weeks of the war, which began in February 2022.
Mr Trump has claimed a deal to end the war is “very close” and has urged Mr Zelenskyy to “get it done” in a post on his Truth Social platform.
He has previously warned both sides his administration would walk away from its efforts to achieve a peace if the two sides do not agree a deal soon.
Meanwhile, the Polish armed forces said a Russian military helicopter violated its airspace over the Baltic Sea on Friday evening.
“The nature of the incident indicates that Russia is testing the readiness of our air defence systems,” they said in a post on X.
On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
Leaning forward hands together in their laps, Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy stare at each other in one photo.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.
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