While many are spinning this as having been from a nasty slip of the tongue, “calling opposition leader David Seymour an “arrogant p—-“” on hotmike, really, it’s that the citizens of New Zealand lost all faith and trust in her
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern resigns a month after hot mic insult
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Thursday that she would not seek re-election and will be stepping down next month.
Ahearn made the shocking announcement at her Labor party’s annual caucus meeting, saying she “no longer had enough in the tank” to do the job.
“I’m leaving, because with such a privileged role comes responsibility,” she said. “The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not. 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.”
Her resignation takes effect Feb. 7.
Ardern became prime minister in 2017 and led New Zealand through a period of major incidents, including the COVID-19 pandemic and an attack on two mosques in Christchurch in which 51 people were killed. During the pandemic, she imposed some of the strictest lockdown rules in the world.
In August 2021, the country was put on lockdown for at least three days after a single case of the coronavirus was found in one community.
New Zealand was one of the worst in the world for their Wuhan Flu lockdown measures, and her party is paying the price for it, trailing badly in the polls, especially with their economy in the dumps.
(UK Daily Mail) New Zealand’s borders closed on March 20, 2020, and returning citizens had to endure two weeks of hotel quarantine.
A nationwide lockdown began on March 26 and lasted until May 27, so strict that Kiwis couldn’t even buy takeaway food like they could in Australia and other countries in lockdown.
More lockdowns followed in specific regions over the next year including two lasting several weeks across Auckland, NZ’s biggest city.
She and her party won in 2020 and 2021, but, the citizens became tired of this, along with the mask and vaccine mandates. Even The NY Times has noticed
The pandemic in particular seemed to play to her strengths as a clear and unifying communicator — until extended lockdowns and vaccine mandates hurt the economy, fueled conspiracy theories and spurred a backlash. In a part of the world where Covid restrictions lingered, Ms. Ardern has struggled to get beyond her association with pandemic policy.
“People personally invested in her, that has alway been a part of her appeal,” said Richard Shaw, a politics professor at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
“She became a totem,” he added. “She became the personification of a particular response to the pandemic, which people in the far-flung margins of the internet and the not so far-flung margins used against her.”
When new, more transmissible variants made that impossible, Ms. Ardern’s team pivoted but struggled to get vaccines quickly. Strict vaccination mandates then kept people from activities like work, eating out and getting haircuts.
The question now is, do other leaders and parties pay the price? Australia and Canada would be two to consider. None here in the states seem to be paying the price, because there is just too much partisanship. Hey, the wackos re-elected Gretchen Whitmer, who was one of the worst in the U.S.
“…the wackos re-elected Gretchen Whitmer…”
No. She was re-installed by voter fraud.
Jacinda Ardern has lost her lofty popularity not because of poisoned stoats but because of the inflation and high gasoline prices that US President Biden has spread around the world! Blame Biden!
The death rate from Covid in liberal New Zealand was 469/million while in the conservative US it was 3258/million suggesting the Ardern was 7 times more effective against the pandemic than were we Americans! Most people would choose being quarantined over being dead. Alabama has about the same population as New Zealand and AL had a Covid death rate of 4240 deaths/million. For whatever reason conservative states tended to have highest Covid death rates.
Would a hobbyist have done such a good job? Ardern is a young, liberal female which connies detest unless they are also strippers or hookers. Some public servants never intend to remain in power forever. But some do.
The voters of Brazil tossed the reactionary Bolsonaro out on his butt too. Their death rate was similar to the US rate, where the reactionary Trump was tossed.
We know, we know, whenever a right-wing authoritarian loses it’s because of cheating.
New Zealand is the perfect place to try out all sorts of leftist semi-socialist policies.
Afluent white population with a fully integrated and productive native population. Very limited immigration allowed and a thousand miles of ocean to enforce it. Their naturally pleasant population with ultra-low crime rate allows them to totally disarm the population with no harm done. Since no one depends on them for anything, they can even afford to turn their military into a hobby. Even the one mass shooter they had since their colonial days, they had to import from Australia (land of criminals).
For such a place, even their government can be treated like a hobby for rich white people with connections.
I consider that her worst crime had nothing to do with COVID or disarming policies. It is her government’s policy of eradication of stoats. Stoats are a weasel relative brought from Europe that has been blamed for decline in the Kiwi bird population. To do this, they have been dropping poison from airplanes. The Kia, another unique bird and likely the smartest bird on the planet, is dying off in great numbers. Add to that the unaccountable mass extinction of domestic dogs and cats who eat the poison and this is a crime that we cannot even guess at the final scope of.
In the end, she is leaving because it was just a hobby for her and it stopped being fun (on empty).
Ardern was also roundly criticized for curtailing immigration, as critics claimed it hurt the economy by creating a worker shortage.
And the world’s worst “human”, Roger Stone (a Trump pardonee), called her a “jack-booted authoritarian”.
Anyway, 6 years is enough.
She tested positive for fascism during the Covid outbreak. Poor thing…
Prime Minister Ardern has been a bete noire of the far-right since she took office. Why? She’s pleasant, female, young, liberal, considers global warming a threat and is anti-assault weapon – all characteristics that MAGAs hate.
The far-right calls her an authoritarian while applauding Kim Jong-un, Bolsonaro, Orban and of course, Vladimir Putin.