Bjarni Benediktsson (politician, 1970)

Bjarni Benediktsson (2009)

Bjarni Benediktsson (born January 26, 1970 in Reykjavík ) is an Icelandic politician. He has been the party leader of the Independence Party ( Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn ) since 2009 and was Prime Minister of Iceland from 11 January to 30 November 2017 . Since then he has been Minister of Finance and Economics, which office he had previously held since May 23, 2013.

Career

After graduating from the University of Iceland with a law degree , Bjarni Benediktsson continued his studies in Germany from 1995 to 1996 , where he studied German as well as law. In 1997 he received a Master of Laws from the University of Miami School of Law. After completing his studies, he worked as a lawyer in Iceland.

Since 2003 he has been a member of the Icelandic parliament Althing . On March 29, 2009, about a month before the 2009 parliamentary elections , he was elected with 58.1% to succeed Geir Hilmar Haarde as Chairman of the Independence Party. The previous ruling party slipped 9 seats to 16 seats and came in second.

At the end of April 2013, Bjarni Benediktsson's Independence Party emerged as the clear winner in the elections to the Icelandic parliament with 26.7 percent of the vote. After this election result, he intended to form a bourgeois coalition government with Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson from the liberal Progress Party , which should replace the previous center-left government under Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir . The bourgeois camp together got about 51 percent of the vote.

On April 30, 2013, however, Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson announced that he would hand over the mandate to form the new government to Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, whose Progress Party had become the second strongest party in Iceland with 24.4 percent of the vote. This was given the task of exploring and negotiating possible coalitions with other parties.

On May 18, 2013, the Icelandic media reported that the coalition negotiations between the Progressive Party and the Independence Party had been successful and the first result was announced that Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson would be the next Prime Minister of Iceland, while Bjarni Benediktsson from the Independence Party would be the Ministry of Finance and Economy will lead. On May 23, 2013, the new coalition government began its work. Bjarni Benediktsson was responsible for the Ministry of Finance and Economy. Before the election, Bjarni Benediktsson had spoken out clearly against his country's membership of the EU and wanted to put talks with the EU on hold for the time being. He saw Iceland's future primarily in the further development of fishing and tourism.

In the course of the publication of the Panama Papers it became known that Bjarni Benediktsson was acting as general representative of the offshore company Falson & Co. , which was founded in 2005 by the company Mossack Fonseca in the Seychelles. In 2012 the company was apparently dissolved. In February 2015 Bjarni said on a television program that he had "never had any investments in tax havens or the like".

After the early parliamentary elections on October 29, 2016 , the coalition of the Independence and Progress Party lost its majority. After initially neither Bjarni Benediktsson nor the chairmen of other parties had succeeded in forming a new government coalition, Bjarni was ultimately given the post of Prime Minister in a coalition of the Independence Party and the liberal parties Björt framtíð and Viðreisn , which had been the Government of Iceland. On September 15, 2017, the Bjarni Benediktsson cabinet broke up because Björt framtíð left the coalition. The occasion was, the father of Bjarni Benediktsson that with a letter for the "Restoring Honor" one because of child abuse convicted pedophile had used and Bjarni and his party were accused to have tried to cover up the authorship of this letter. October 28, 2017 was set as the date for new elections .

In the Cabinet katrín jakobsdóttir Bjarni Benediktsson holds the office of finance and economics minister again since 30 November 2017th

Bjarni Benediktsson is married and lives with his wife and four children in Garðabær, south of Reykjavík.

Surname

Bjarni Benediktsson is sometimes referred to as Bjarni Benediktsson Jr to distinguish it from the former Prime Minister of Iceland Bjarni Benediktsson (1908–1970) . Although there is indeed a relationship (the former prime minister was Bjarni's great-uncle), there is no direct relationship between this relationship and Bjarni's surname, which - as usual in the Icelandic personal name system - is a patronymic ("son of Benedict").

Web links

• Profile on the website of the Icelandic Parliament (isl.)
• Brief profile on the website of the Icelandic Parliament (Engl.)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bjarni Benediktsson ( Icelandic ) Alþingi. January 11, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
2. ↑ dpa: Parliamentary election: Iceland votes to the right and turns away from the EU . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine . April 28, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
3. ↑ Útreikningar á úthlutun þingsæta samkvæmt úrslitum kosninga til Alþingis April 27, 2013 ( Icelandic , PDF) Landskjörstjórn. Retrieved July 18, 2016.
4. ↑ form a government and parliamentarians , articles of 30 April 2013 in Iceland Review
5. ↑ Sigmundur Davíð næsti forsætisráðherra ruv.is May 18, 2013
6. ↑ Iceland Election: Sigmundur Davíð to be Prime Minister icelandreview.com, May 18, 2013
7. ↑ sda / ats: Benediktsson steers Iceland away from the EU again . In: swissinfo.ch . April 28, 2013. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
8. ↑ Elena Kuch, Jan Lukas Strozyk and Benedikt Strunz, NDR: Iceland’s premier parked money in the Caribbean . In: tagesschau.de . April 13, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
9. ↑ Adam Taylor: Iceland ousted one leader named in the Panama Papers, but ended up with another on the list ( English ) In: Washington Post . January 11, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
10. ↑ Ríkisráðsfundir á Bessastöðum miðvikudaginn 11 janúar 2017 ( Icelandic ) Forsætisráðuneytið. January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
11. ↑ ^{a b} aev / Reuters: Political scandal: Government in Iceland falls apart . In: Spiegel Online . September 16, 2017. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
12. ↑ In Iceland a legal instrument that allows people convicted of serious crimes to recover certain lost rights, see: Laws for "restored honor" are 77 years old ( English ) In: Iceland Monitor . mbl.is / Morgunblaðið. September 15, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
13. ^ Rudolf Hermann: Iceland's power elite and their scandals . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . September 18, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
14. ↑ Jelena Ćirić: Elections Confirmed for October 28th ( English ) In: Iceland Review . September 18, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
15. ^ Geir Finnsson: Five Women, Six Men in New Cabinet ( English ) In: Iceland Review . November 30, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
16. ↑ The political dynasties of Iceland ( English ) In: Iceland Monitor . mbl.is. October 22, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2016.

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .