We begin with an unexpected announcement.
New Zealand's Prime
Minister says she's resigning
and will be stepping down
in just a matter of weeks.
Speaking at a Labor Party retrea
Jacinda Ardern got choked up
as she said she doesn't have the
to leave government anymore.
Won't be seeking reelection.
Announce the end date for her
time in office.
Here she is.
This summer I had hoped to find
to prepare not just for another
but another tune
because that is what this year r
I have not been able to do that
And so today I'm announcing
that I will not be seeking reele
and then my term as Prime Minist
will conclude
no later than the 7th of Februar
Clearly an emotional moment
for the Prime Minister,
whose time in office
brought her international recogn
World leaders have praised her
empathetic handling of several
major crises
like the COVID
19 pandemic, the 2019
Christchurch terror attack
and a deadly volcanic eruption
that same year.
But her popularity at home
has waned recently amid
a slowing economy and rising inf
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me
now from Hong Kong.
Kristie,
so take us through the reasons
behind the decision and the reac
Kim, this announcement stunned
many people in New Zealand
and around the world.
And according to political pundi
if Jacinda Ardern stayed in powe
she'd be facing a bruising polit
battle ahead.
So it would be better for her
to leave in a high note.
But according to Jacinda Ardern
and we heard from her directly
at a press conference earlier to
She simply does
not have the energy to stand
for reelection in October,
and that is why she is standing
as prime minister in early Febru
New Zealand's youngest female pr
minister strove
to bring compassion and empathy
to politics,
values tested
by a string of once
in a generation crises.
We encountered
a major biosecurity incursion,
domestic terror event,
a major natural disaster
a global pandemic,
and an economic crisis in 2019
when the far right terrorists ta
two mosques in the city of Chris
killing 51 people.
Ardern embraced the Muslim commu
We are one.
They are us.
Tato tato
as salaam alaikum.
Where would I meet Allah? Are.
But a couple
weeks later, her government
successfully banned
military style semi-automatic we
like the one used in the attack.
She showed the heart
not only of a leader, but of a m
Ardern became a mother in 2018
during her first full year in of
taking just six weeks off
from maternity leave.
A young, unmarried woman
from a modest background,
Ardern defied norms
and earned a global reputation,
outsized for leader
of just under 5 million people.
But at home, Ardern won
two general elections,
including a landslide victory in
But public support
dipped in the last of her five
and a half years in office.
Tough COVID 19 pandemic restrict
and the economic troubles
that followed the virus
damaged Ardern politically.
In December
her Labor
Party lost an important byelecti
to the conservative National Par
I think the real reason Ardern's
is that she's lost popularity.
So the opinion polls here
have really plummeted for her go
and for her personally,
and it's going to be
a very tough election for her go
When Ardern admitted Thursday
that she doesn't
have the energy
for that political fight,
I know what this job takes
and I know that I no longer
have enough in the tank to do it
It's that simple.
As for what's next?
Ardern says
she has no professional plans
beyond her last day in office.
She says she's looking forward
to spending time
with her family,
to being there for her four year
old daughter
when she starts school
and to finally get married
to her partner.
Television host Clarke Gayford
Domestically inside New Zealand,
Jacinda Ardern has been facing d
a number of political headwinds
as voters focus on issues
like the rising cost of living
or the specter of recession.
But internationally,
she has been hailed
for being a strong progressive v
and for being a strong leader.
I want to share a couple of
international reactions
to her announcement
that she plans to resign.
This from the Prime
Minister of Australia, saying
that Jacinda Ardern
has shown the world
how to lead with intellect and s
She has demonstrated
that empathy and insight are pow
leadership qualities.
Jacinda has been a fierce advoca
for New Zealand,
an inspiration to so many
and a great friend to me, unquot
And this from Justin Trudeau,
the Prime Minister of Canada, wh
Thank you, Jacinda
Ardern, for your partnership
and your friendship
and for your empathetic compassi
His strong and steady leadership
over these past several years.
The difference
you have made is immeasurable an
you and your family nothing but
My friend unquote.
Jacinda Ardern will resign
as Prime Minister on February
the seventh. Back to you.
All right. Appreciate it.
Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong.
And for more on this, let's
bring in
Lara Greaves, senior
lecturer of New Zealand
Politics and public policy
at the University of Auckland.
Thank you so much for being here
So, you know, for many
this comes as a huge shock.
Are you surprised as well?
Incredibly shocked.
I don't think any of us
woke up this morning
expecting that I and would resig
We were kind of expecting
in these next couple of weeks
a announcement of sorts around
what the election date would be.
But instead
the announcement was Election Da
And then this whole resignation
incredibly shocked.
No one really expected this.
All right.
So we just
saw that package from from Chris
to sort out their
sort of looking at
some of the factors here behind
Why do you think she's stepping
Well, I would actually kind of c
anyone not taking her at face va
I think everyone's tired.
Everyone's worn out from
sort of the COVID experience.
And I think we can expect our le
reasonably to be worn out.
I do agree that she's had some
pressures from political opponen
and that the 2024 election looke
it would be very close for her.
But generally and genuinely,
she has
had like an incredibly challengi
We had that world leading COVID
She had the Christchurch
terrorist attack.
Through all of this,
she was also a mother during thi
So it's been an incredibly stres
five or six years.
And I mean, yes, she needs a res
So I think fundamentally
she's got political challenges,
but we can kind of take
her at face value.
We were talking
about sort of,
you know, her fading popularity.
I mean, she was praised
as a great communicator.
She has a degree in communicatio
She had a fantastic ability
to connect with voters.
Did something break in that conn
do you think?
So what has happened over time a
When I turned one,
it was quite a close election.
Like it was one of those
quirks of our electoral system
that she ended up being prime mi
And so what we saw
after the 20, 20 election,
which was a record high for Labo
and a win that we never thought
we'd see under our system.
We've seen this return
to politics as normal.
And part of
that has happened
because all of those global
economic pressures
we've got this cost of living cr
We're facing inflation
like many other countries are.
So part of
it has been sort of coming down
from these record high levels,
but other things have been
economic challenges.
And having to face
all of these policy challenges
up against the background of COV
So she does face
has faced declining polls
and we're definitely thinking
it will be quite a tight
election in 20, 23
regardless of who is prime minis
There seems to be, you know,
a bit of a trend of female world
leaders being forced out
early, having either their party
or the voters turn on them quick
Is there a gender factor here at
I think there's a little bit
of a gender factor,
but I wouldn't
put it down to that at all.
I would say
this is not a fourth thing out.
This is her retiring on her term
in a way.
However, we have seen unpreceden
heightened vitriol towards
Jacinda Ardern.
That's something
that as a New Zealand
political scientist,
I would never expect to see.
It's not part of our political c
but there's something about Arde
that has meant
that she has been targeted
and we have seen new sort of imp
height in New Zealand
and that's really concerning
and potentially part of her resi
Now she seemed
to to captivate the world's atte
not usual for for a small countr
like New Zealand,
I'd say,
particularly because she was see
in contrast
to the rise of populists
like Donald Trump.
You've outlined
some of the highlights
of her time in office.
What do you think her her legacy
Well, I like to think about
what will be on her Wikipedia pa
or in the years to come,
what will be teaching students a
What will those top line things
It will be the crisis,
prime minister,
kind of rewriting the rulebook
on how to react to the crisis,
the hugging of the
members of the Muslim community
after the Christchurch
terrorist attack, the wearing,
the headscarf
and respecting their cultural tr
Whilst being still a bit tough o
That response to COVID
making us the team of 5 million
and then going hard and going ea
which was her word,
I think of those will be
the fundamental markers
of her leadership.
And I think she will go down
as a great prime minister and Ne
history fundamentally.
All right. We'll have to leave it there.
But certainly a fascinating lega
For people like you to analyze
in the years to come.
Lara Greaves
with the University of Auckland,
thank you so much. Appreciate it