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In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern described in emotional terms how she’d navigated a pandemic and a mass-shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as prime minister.
She also told humorous anecdotes like how a European leader so admired the striking hair of Ardern’s chief-of-staff that he fluffed it like a hairdresser — which she joked had helped secure a free-trade deal — and how her mother once sent her a uplifting, if somewhat grandiose, message: “Remember, even Jesus had people who didn’t like him.”
On a more serious note, she urged lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change.
“There will always be policy differences, » Ardern said during her valedictory address, wearing a traditional Māori cloak called a korowai. « But beneath that, we have what we need to make the progress we must. »
When Ardern finished speaking after about 35 minutes, she she was greeted with a standing ovation by lawmakers from across the political spectrum and rousing renditions of several Indigenous Māori songs.
A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern in January stepped down as prime minister, saying, “I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple. » But she stayed on as a lawmaker until April to avoid triggering a special election ahead of the nation’s general elections in October.
