New Zealand prime minister’s decision to quit is understandable on a human level, but the politics of it is confounding
Photograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty ImagesJacinda Ardern has long excelled in seeming like a normal person.
Ardern was facing a very steep hill at the October election, which explains more than any other reason her decision to leave. Inflation, high interest rates, and a likely recession would make that the case for any incumbent government, and her government has also made a litany of unforced errors in recent months. Yet she remained ahead on the preferred prime minister polls, and remained Labour’s best weapon against an opposition leader the public have not quite warmed to.
Her legacy will be for historians to figure out. Some will see her as Labour’s greatest postwar leader – a strong leader through massive crises who also gave the party its largest win in decades. Others will compare her unfavourably with someone like Helen Clark – a soldier for the party who stuck around through two losing election campaigns and three winning ones, remaking New Zealand significantly in her nine-year term of power.
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