Jacinda Ardern explained her decision to step down as New Zealand’s prime minister Thursday with a plea for understanding and rare political directness — the same attributes that helped make her a global emblem of anti-Trump liberalism, then a target of the toxic divisions amplified by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ardern, 42, fought back tears as she announced at a news conference that she would resign in early February before New Zealand’s election in October.
"I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” she said. "It is that simple.”