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
Body of missing rabbi Zvi Kogan found in UAE – as Israeli PM says he was murdered in ‘antisemitic terror incident’
The COP29 climate talks have reached a last ditch deal on cash for developing countries, pulling the summit back from the brink of collapse after a group of countries stormed out of a negotiating room earlier.
The slew of deals finally signed off in the small hours of Sunday morning in Azerbaijan includes one that proved hardest of all – one about money.
Eventually the more than 190 countries in Baku agreed a target for richer polluting countries such as the UK, EU and Japan to drum up $300bn a year by 2035 to help poorer nations both curb and adapt to climate change.
It is a far cry from the $1.3trn experts say is needed, and from the $500bn that vulnerable countries like Uganda had said they would be willing to accept.
But in the end they were forced to, knowing they could not afford to live without it, nor wait until next year to try again, when a Donald Trump presidency would make things even harder.
Bolivia’s lead negotiator Diego Pacheco called it an “insult”, while the Marshall Islands’ Tina Stege said it was “not nearly enough, but it’s a start”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell said: “This new finance goal is an insurance policy for humanity, amid worsening climate impacts hitting every country.
“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps.”
The funding deal was clinched more than 24 hours into overtime, and against what felt like all the odds.
The talks were rocked from the start by the incoming presidency of climate denier Mr Trump, the moment Argentina’s team were recalled back to Buenos Aires by their right-wing president and a controversial letter that sent shockwaves through the United Nations.
Pic: AP
The fraught two weeks of negotiations pitted the anger of developing countries who are footing the bill for more dangerous weather that they did little to cause, against the tight public finances of rich countries.
A relieved Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez, climate envoy for Panama, said there is “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Just hours ago, the talks almost fell apart as furious vulnerable nations stormed out of negotiations in frustration over that elusive funding goal.
They were also angry with oil and gas producing countries, who stood accused of trying to dilute aspects of the deal on cutting fossil fuels.
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Climate-vulnerable nations storm out of talks
The UN talks work on consensus, meaning everyone has to agree for a deal to fly.
A row over how to follow up on last year’s pledge to “transition away from fossil fuels” was left unresolved and punted into next year, following objections from Chile and Switzerland for being too weak.
A draft deal simply “reaffirmed” the commitment but did not dial up the pressure in the way the UK, EU, island states and many others here wanted.
Saudi Arabia fought the hardest against any step forward on cutting fossil fuels, the primary cause of climate change that is intensifying floods, drought and fires around the world.
Governments did manage to strike a deal on carbon markets at COP29, which has been 10 years in the making and will allow countries to trade emissions cuts.
‘Not everything we wanted’
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The UK’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said the deal is “not everything we or others wanted”, but described it as a “step forward”.
“It’s a deal that will drive forward the clean energy transition, which is essential for jobs and growth in Britain and for protecting us all against the worsening climate crisis,” he added.
“Today’s agreement sends the signal that the clean energy transition is unstoppable.
“It is the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century and through our championing of it we can help crowd in private investment.”
Protesters at the summit in Baku. Pic: AP
Read more:
Azerbaijan president hails oil and gas as ‘gift from God’
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The Azerbaijan team leading COP29 said: “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator.
“We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.”
At least 20 people have been killed and 66 injured in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dig through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
The attack destroyed an eight-storey residential building and badly damaged several others around it in the Basta neighbourhood at 4am (2am UK time) on Saturday.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack and has not commented on the casualties.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack – the fourth targeting the city centre this week.
A separate drone strike in the southern port city of Tyre this morning killed two people and injured three, according to the state-run National News Agency.
The victims were Palestinian refugees from the nearby al Rashidieh camp who were out fishing, according to Mohammed Bikai, spokesperson for the Fatah Palestinian faction in the Tyre area.
Israel’s military warned residents today in parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs that they were near Hezbollah facilities, which the army would target in the near future. The warning, posted on X, told people to evacuate at least 500 metres away.
The army said that over the past day it had conducted intelligence-based strikes on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. It said it hit several command centres and weapons storage facilities.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, at least 3,670 people have been killed in Israeli attacks there, with more than 15,400 wounded.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
Meanwhile, six people, including three children and two women, were killed in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis.
Some 44,176 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, but it has said that more than half of the fatalities are women and children.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
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