One clings to power, accumulating deaths in that effort against the social clamor that demands his resignation, while the other resigns when no one expected or intended for him to do so.
As if history wanted to highlight two contrasting examples, in the same handful of days two women rulers made headlines. Dina Boluarte, for confronting with fierce repression the crowds that protest against her betrayal of Pedro Castillo and his agreements with right-wing parties to stay in power by signing controversial agreements with companies in the mining field. At the other extreme of political ethics, Jacinda Ardern caused perplexity by announcing her resignation as prime minister, feeling that she no longer has the energy to continue governing.
The Peruvian president came to power in a Marxist-based party, from which she withdrew along with President Castillo when he gave up on the most radical proposals in a turn to the center-left. She and she later betrayed her promise to resign as vice president if Castillo was ousted. After becoming president, she achieved the support of the most recalcitrant leadership because she agreed to promote her policies, mainly in the field of mining.
The New Zealand leader has always belonged to the center-left Liberal Democrats. She does not express either the Marxist left or the populist left, because in her there is not a hint of authoritarian culture. On the contrary, Jacinda Ardern is one of the exceptions that enrich politics and redeem it from the ambition and corruption that corrode it in the world.
Common rulers cling to power. The less human and democratic quality it has, the more it clings. The most mediocre, corrupt and authoritarian must be extirpated, because they never leave of their own accord.
The few exceptions show relevant leaders, such as George Washington, who when he was again anointed candidate for the presidency of the United States by acclamation, expressed his rejection by saying “more than two terms is a monarchy”, and withdrew from power. That phrase, short and simple, marked North American presidentialism.
Since that resignation, all the presidents have withdrawn voluntarily after the second consecutive term until, after the three nominations of Franklin Roosevelt due to the exceptionality that involved the Second World War and the crisis of the 1930s, the limit that Washington had set became in constitutional amendment.
Mandela is another case of human and political immensity. He retired after a single term, when almost all South Africans wanted him to continue ruling the country he had liberated from apartheid.
Jacinda Ardern did not perform the historic feats of Washington and Mandela nor did she found her country’s democracy, as the aforementioned giants did. But her resignation, almost a year after the end of her term and with the possibility of being re-elected, caused astonishment in the world.
Although rational and wealthy, New Zealand is a low profile country. Her rulers always go unnoticed on the international scene, but Ardern is an exception because she became prime minister at just 37 years old. She once again drew attention to being a mother while in office, in which case she has only one antecedent: the former Pakistani leader Benazir Butho.
But what stood out to her the most was her intelligence, humanism, compassion and kindness as a ruler.
Even in a country as reasonable as New Zealand, it is not common for someone who has power to be so dialogical and kind. His life is full of exceptional attitudes. He grew up in a Mormon family, a religion he abandoned as a teenager, considering that faith preached contempt for homosexuals.
He embraced social democracy and worked on Tony Blair’s teams, eventually leading the International Union of Socialist Youth. And back in his country, he rescued the Labor Party from the weakness in which Andrew Little had left it.
It was under the leadership of that young lady that the center-left party managed to recover the government, in alliance with environmentalists and a center party. And in the next election, he won a historic victory.
The so-called “jacindamania” began with his moving performance in front of the massacres committed by a white supremacist in two Christchurch mosques, in 2019. He put on a hijab and went to hug the community in which fifty faithful were shot to death.
In the world she was taken as an example of leadership full of humanity and compassion. To those who disown Muslims and immigrants, Ardern responded by saying “they are us.” A lucid and profound class on humanism contained in three words.
Beyond the mistakes, which he also made, and the weakness that, as in the rest of the world, the New Zealand economy began to feel due to the anti-covid measures, the main feature of his leadership was to dialogue and make kindness a political instrument.
The polls show a drop in support for his government, but the next election cannot be counted as a loss for Labor. For this reason, although they have started and spread versions and theories, the reason for her resignation seems to be what she gave, generating an ocean of perplexity: “I feel that I no longer have energy.”
The normal thing in politics is that rulers cling to office, but she belongs to the redeeming minority that can get rid of power. The drop in the polls and the growing economic and security problems are not reasons for a leader who has gained so much local and international prestige to announce right off the bat that she is leaving government and leadership.
Conservatives loathe her for being a feminist and for pushing for marriage equality and abortion rights. But few rulers have aroused so much admiration. Therefore, in New Zealand and in the world she generates perplexity that she relinquishes power for the reason she gave.
It sounds strange that someone who has achieved so much celebrity without meaning to, decides to get off the stage because he wants to spend more time with his daughter and at home. She seems from another planet.
It is simply incredible that someone who has gone into politics stops wanting power. But that seems to be the case of Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern, the young woman who from the government taught the strength of tolerance, compassion and kindness. And she enriched politics, even with her resignation.
Image gallery
