Young, progressive and relatable, the former prime minister of New Zealand tried to do politics differently. But six years into power, she dramatically resigned. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian’s editor-in-chief, she explains why
• Read an exclusive extract from Ardern’s memoir
In 2022, a few months before she quit as prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern was standing at the sink in the toilets in Auckland airport, washing her hands, when a woman came up to her and leaned in. She was so close that Ardern could feel the heat from her skin. “I just wanted to say thank you,” the woman said. “Thanks for ruining the country.” She turned and left, leaving Ardern “standing there as if I were a high-schooler who’d just been razed”.
The incident was deeply shocking. Ardern had been re-elected in a historic landslide two years before. She enjoyed conversation and debate; she liked being the kind of leader who wasn’t sealed off from the rest of the population. But this, says Ardern, “felt like something new. It was the tenor of the woman’s voice, the way she’d stood so close, the way her seething, nonspecific rage felt not only unpredictable but incongruous to the situation … What was happening?”