After her shock resignation, what’s next for New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern?
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — After Jacinda Ardern announced this week that she was stepping down as New Zealand’s prime minister, speculation began almost immediately about what she might do for a second act.
When she leaves, she will have accumulated 15 years of experience as a lawmaker and 5½ years as leader. She will also be just 42 years old. Observers say she has all sorts of career possibilities open to her.
Ardern said she was leaving the job because she no longer has “enough in the tank to do it justice” and has no immediate plans for her own future other than to spend more time with her fiance and their 4-year-old daughter.
“I’ll have to admit I slept well for the first time in a long time last night,” Ardern told reporters Friday, adding that she felt both sadness and relief.
Stephen Hoadley, an assistant professor of politics and international relations at the University of Auckland, said he couldn’t imagine that Ardern would remain at home over the long term, given her energy and skills.
“She has the potential, she has the ability, she has the profile, she has the acceptability to do a whole lot of things,” Hoadley said. “Give her a few weeks to rest up and to refill the tank, to use her phrase. But I would imagine by the end of this year, she’ll be off and running on a whole new career line.”
Premier Jacinda Ardern says she has no plans to remove the British monarch as New Zealand’s head of state following Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Hoadley pointed to the career path of Helen Clark, another former New Zealand prime minister who went on to become a top administrator at the United Nations, leading the development program.
“Jacinda could be tapped by any number of United Nations or charitable or philanthropical or other kinds of organizations,” Hoadley said.
“There are many, many possibilities, and her profile is so high that I think she would have her pick.”
Climate Change Minister James Shaw, who first met Ardern in about 2007 and has remained friends, said he was in shock but also not wholly surprised when Ardern told him of her plans to resign.
New Zealand is removing most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions, signaling a return to normalcy for the first time since the pandemic began.
“It’s been a really intense five years,” Shaw said.
On top of a busy legislative program, Shaw said, Ardern needed to steer the country through a series of crises, including a mass shooting at two Christchurch mosques that left 51 people dead, a volcanic eruption that killed 22 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
On top of that, Ardern also bore the brunt of a growing number of threats, Shaw said, and a toxic, misogynistic online culture that had grown worse in recent years.
“What I hope is that she can get some time at the beach with her family, uninterrupted, for a while,” Shaw said.
The whales beached themselves on the Chatham Islands, which are home to about 600 people and lie about 500 miles east of New Zealand’s main islands.
He said he believes Ardern when she says she doesn’t yet have firm plans for the future.
“I think she could do pretty much whatever she wants from this point,” Shaw said.
“Jacinda is one of the most selfless, determined, publicly minded people I have ever met,” Shaw added. “So I would imagine that whatever it is, it will be in the public interest.”
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