A leader chooses fatherhood over legacy tours. Let's normalise that
We need to talk about the most radical sentence in this story, and it isn't about Nato. It's this: 'I leave probably the most high-profile job in the country to the most important, which is to be the best dad I can to my kids and best husband I can to my wife.' A departing head of government naming care work as the bigger job. Print it on posters.
Think of what the small details reveal about the office itself: almost every family holiday interrupted by global events. Two meals in his cooking repertoire, because when would he have learned a third? We build leadership roles that consume whole human beings and then act surprised when the humans inside them hollow out. That's a design flaw, not a badge of honour.
His likely future — something international, where allies respect him and even critics concede success — could genuinely serve people, whether that's Nato or, dare we dream, something in climate diplomacy or international justice. He was a human rights lawyer once. The world has vacancies for those.
And the model he's setting for departures: advice in private if asked, no undermining of his successor, a cause chosen and stuck with. Imagine, instead, every powerful man leaving power this gracefully. Sign the petition for statutory paternity leave from politics. There is always a petition.