Time.news – Jacinda Ardern, prime minister of New Zealand who suddenly and sensationally left her post on Thursday, confessed she slept soundly ‘for the first time in a long time’ after having resigned. In the meantime, however, the allegations about the threats and pressures that would have forced it to take this step are not destined to die down. “Obviously I feel sad, but I also feel a sense of relief,” Ardern added as he spoke to reporters outside Hawke’s Bay airport.
In any case, she rejected the allegations, instead simply confirming that she “no longer has enough energy” to continue. Prominent New Zealand political leaders and public figures disagree who have returned to reiterate how “the constant denigration”abuse and personal attacks on Ardern have contributed to the burnout while some MPs even say the prime minister has literally been ‘kicked out of office’.
“I am human. Politicians are human,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand said as she announced her resignation. “We give all that we can for as long as we can, and then it’s time.” https://t.co/rLg6z9alAH pic.twitter.com/Ap3V8amAO8
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 19, 2023
However, former Prime Minister Helen Clark, New Zealand’s first elected female leader, has come to her rescue, saying that Ardern has suffered “unprecedented” attacks during her tenure, before pointing out that “the pressure on prime ministers is always great, but in this age of social media, clicks, bits and 24/7 talk, Jacinda has dealt with a level of vitriolic hatred which in my experience is unprecedented in our country”. “Our society could now usefully reflect on whether it wants to continue to tolerate the excessive polarization that is making politics an increasingly less attractive vocation”, he added.
In 2022, however, the New Zealand police reported that threats against the premier had almost tripled in three years. And while police have not been able to determine the motives for each individual threat, documentation has shown that no-vax sentiment has been a driving force behind a number of threats, along with opposition to a gun regulation law. firearm that Ardern wanted to introduce after the massacre that took place on March 15 in Christchurch.
In short, these two would be the premier’s main contesting factors. Kate Hannah, director of the Disinformation Project which monitors online extremism at the Te Pūnaha Matatini research center, commented in this regard that she has seen a significant increase in offensive and threatening material against Ardern and believes that this probably contributed to make her leave her post. “What we see now are extremely vulgar and violent insults with an incredibly violent use of images around concrete death threats”.