Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson
25th Prime Minister of Iceland
In office
23 May 2013 – 7 April 2016
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Preceded by Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Succeeded by Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson
Minister of Justice
In office
26 August 2014 – 4 December 2014
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Prime Minister Himself
Preceded by Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir (as Minister of the Interior)
Succeeded by Ólöf Nordal (as Minister of the Interior)
Chairman of the Progressive Party
Assumed office
18 January 2009
Preceded by Valgerður Sverrisdóttir
Member of the Althing
Assumed office
25 April 2009
Constituency Reykjavík Constituency North (2009–2013)
Northeast Constituency (2013–present)
Personal details
Born (1975-03-12) 12 March 1975
Reykjavík, Iceland
Political party Progressive Party
Spouse(s) Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir
Children 1
Alma mater University of Iceland
University of Cambridge
This is an Icelandic name. The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Sigmundur Davíð.

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈsɪɣmʏntʏr ˈtaːvið ˈkʏnløyxsɔn]; born 12 March 1975) is an Icelandic politician who was Prime Minister of Iceland from May 2013 until April 2016, when he took temporary leave of absence from the post. He has also been chairman of the Progressive Party since 2009. He was elected to the Althing (Iceland's parliament) as the 8th member for the Reykjavík Constituency North on 25 April 2009. He has represented the Northeast Constituency as its 1st member since 27 April 2013.

Following the release of the Panama Papers, he announced on 5 April 2016 that he would step aside from the office of Prime Minister. On 7 April 2016 he was replaced as Prime Minister by Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson.

Early life

Sigmundur Davíð is the son of former member of the Icelandic parliament Gunnlaugur M. Sigmundsson.[1]

Sigmundur Davíð holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Iceland.[2] He participated in a student exchange with the University of Copenhagen to Plekhanov University in Moscow, he also studied at the University of Oxford without earning a degree.[3] He was a Chevening scholar at the University of Cambridge in 2004.[4]

Sigmundur Davíð worked as a journalist and as a television host at RUV while studying from 2000 to 2007. He was president of the Nordic Economics Students' Union between 2000 and 2002 and a member of skipulagsráði Reykjavík from 2008-2010.[3]

Political career

Sigmundur Davíð first rose to prominence in Iceland as a spokesperson for the InDefence movement, that fought foreign creditors' attempts to make Iceland pay out £2.3 billion in compensation to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands following the collapse and subsequent nationalisation of Iceland's three banks. As Eirikur Bergmann wrote in The Guardian, "This was the most serious diplomatic crisis the country had ever fought and Gunnlaugsson was at the forefront of it."[5]

He was elected chairman of the Progressive Party on 18 January 2009 with 40.9% of the votes of party members, beating Höskuldur Þórhallsson (37.9%).[6] On 22 January 2009, Sigmundur Davíð proposed the support of the Progressive Party's seven votes in the Althing for a minority coalition between the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, as an alternative to the ruling coalition between the Independence Party and the Social Democratic Alliance and with the aim of forcing early elections.[7] The next day, Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced elections for 9 May 2009, in which for health reasons he would not be a candidate.

In the Althing election on 27 April 2013, the Progressive Party and Independence Party each won 19 seats.[8] On 30 April President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson asked Sigmundur Davíð to form a new government.[9]

On 23 May 2013, Sigmundur Davíð, as chairman of the Progressive Party, became Iceland’s next Prime Minister while the leader of the Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson, took up the position of Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs.[10] At 38 years old, he was the youngest Prime Minister in the history of the Icelandic Republic and was the world's youngest democratically elected head of government at that time.[11]

Panama Papers revelations

Sigmundur Davíð was interviewed in April 2016 by the Swedish television station SVTs investigative programme Uppdrag granskning.[12][13] The interviewer told Sigmundur Davíð that the interview would focus on how Iceland recovered after its financial crisis. During the interview Sigmundur Davíð said it is very important for everyone to pay a fair share into society and that paying less than one's share constitutes cheating society.[14][12]

When Sigmundur Davíð was asked if he had any connections to a foreign company, he said his financial assets had always been reported transparently. When asked about his own connections to Wintris, a foreign company that was a creditor to failed Icelandic banks, he said he had disclosed all requested information to the government and was unsure how the transactions actually worked.[12] Sigmundur Davíð said the interviewer was making something suspicious out of something that is not suspicious, and then walked out of the interview.[13][15] Following the interview, he and his wife issued public statements about "journalist encroachment in their private lives" and insisted on the completeness of their legal disclosures.[14]

Following the release of the Panama Papers, it was indicated that Sigmundur Davíð's wife, Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir, had bought Wintris, a British Virgin Islands-registered company, in 2007 in order to invest her family's money. She bought it from a Panamanian company using a Luxembourgian bank. Sigmundur Davíð did not disclose his fifty percent share of Wintris when he entered parliament in 2009. Eight months later, he sold his share to his wife for one US dollar.[16][17] In 2015, he entered into an agreement with the creditors of failed Icelandic banks, including his own wife.[18]

Resigning from the office of Prime Minister

Following the Panama Papers revelations, there were widespread calls for Sigmundur Davíð to resign. Former Prime Minister of Iceland, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, was amongst them.[19] Sigmundur Davíð later said he would not resign. He apologized for his behavior during the interview, saying that he should not have left in the middle of the interview.[16]

With the growing pressure, a large anti-government protest in front of the parliament,[20] and calls for a snap election from the Althing, Sigmundur Davíð asked President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to dissolve parliament, which was denied, the president noting he "was not ready to agree to [dissolving parliament] until [he] had discussions with the leaders of other parties on their stand". Sigmundur Davíð stepped aside as Prime Minister on 5 April 2016.[20][21]

Iceland's government named Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson the replacement Prime Minister on 6 April 2016 and called for early autumn elections, effectively ending Sigmundur Davíð's role as PM. It was suggested that the autumn elections would give the government 'time to follow through on one of the biggest economic policy changes within Iceland in decades'.[22]

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ "Pabbi Sigmundar ósáttur: Einkavinir Jóhönnu og Steingríms kallaðir til sem sérfræðingar". Visir. April 3, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  2. ↑ "Brautskráðir kandidatar frá hagfræðideild – Háskóli Íslands". University of Iceland. Retrieved May 29, 2014.. (Icelandic)
  3. 1 2 "Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson". Alþingi (in Icelandic). Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  4. ↑ "Directory of Chevening Alumni". Chevening UK Government Scholarships. 24 August 2014.
  5. ↑ Bergmann, Eirikur (5 April 2016). "Iceland is in crisis mode. It feels like 2009 all over again". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  6. ↑ "Sigmundur kjörinn formaður", Morgunblaðið, 18 January 2009. (Icelandic)
  7. ↑ Opposition attempts to call Iceland elections, bypassing PM, IceNews, 22 January 2009
  8. ↑ Iceland vote: Centre-right opposition wins election, BBC News, 28 April 2013, retrieved 1 May 2013
  9. ↑ Robert Roberson; Balazs Koranyi (30 April 2013), Iceland's center-right Progressives to form new government, Reuters, retrieved 1 May 2013
  10. ↑ "Iceland Election: Sigmundur Davíð to be Prime Minister" Iceland Review, 18 May 2013, retrieved 19 May 2013
  11. ↑ "Young Guns" Iceland Review, 3 June 2013, retrieved 3 June 2013
  12. 1 2 3 "Isländsk ilska växer efter statsminister-avslöjande". svt.se. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  13. 1 2 "Statsministern går – mitt i intervjun". svt.se. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  14. 1 2 "Uppdrag Granskning avslöjar "historiens största läcka"". Dagens Media. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  15. ↑ "Iceland’s prime minister walks out of interview over tax haven question – video". the Guardian. 3 April 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  16. 1 2 Fontaine, Paul. "PM Apologises For Behaviour, Says Will Not Resign". The Reykjavík Grapevine. Fröken Ltd. 4 April 2016.
  17. ↑ "Islands Premier parkte Geld in der Karibik". Tagesschau (in German). 3 April 2016.
  18. ↑ "Panama Papers: Iceland PM Gunnlaugsson urged to resign amid Mossack Fonseca data leak". ABC News (Australia). 3 April 2016.
  19. ↑ "Jóhanna segir Sigmund verða að segja af sér". RÚV (in Icelandic). 3 April 2016.
  20. 1 2 Henley, Jon (5 April 2016). "Iceland PM steps aside after protests over Panama Papers revelations". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  21. ↑ Sandhu, Serina (6 April 2016). "Iceland Prime Minister 'not resigning' over Panama Papers, just stepping aside for ‘unspecified amount of time’". The Independent. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  22. ↑ "Iceland government appoints new PM, to call early elections". Reuters UK. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  23. ↑ Manila (7 January 2016). "Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson". Ethnicelebs. Retrieved 6 April 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Valgerður Sverrisdóttir		 Leader of the Progressive Party
2009–present 		Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir		 Prime Minister of Iceland
2013–2016 		Succeeded by
Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson
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