Davíð Oddsson

Davíð Oddsson (2003)

Davíð Oddsson (born January 17, 1948 in Reykjavík ) is an Icelandic politician. From 1991 to 2004 he was the 14th Prime Minister of Iceland ( forsætisráðherra ) since independence on June 17, 1944. From 2005 to 2009 he was head of the Icelandic Central Bank . Since September 2009 he has been editor-in-chief of a major Icelandic daily newspaper, Morgunblaðið . Davíð Oddsson belongs to the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkur). He was a candidate in Iceland's 2016 presidential election .

Life

Youth and early political activity

Davíð Oddsson was born in Reykjavík, the son of a doctor and a bank secretary. He was initially interested in acting ; as a high school student, he attended drama classes in the evenings and appeared in a leading role in a performance of King Ubu , which was also broadcast on Icelandic television. During his law studies from 1970 to 1976 he worked for two years for the Reykjavík City Theater, the predecessor of today's Borgarleikhúsið , and produced a humorous radio program with Þórarinn Eldjárn and Hrafn Gunnlaugsson . From 1973 to 1974 he was parliamentary correspondent for Morgunblaðið . In 1976 he graduated from the University of Iceland . Davíð had been politically active since 1974; since 1974 he was the youngest member of the Reykjavík City Council. He became mayor of Reykjavík on May 27, 1982 and remained in office until July 16, 1991. From 1991 to 2005 he was a member of the Icelandic parliament Althing , first for the then Reykjavík constituency, from 2003 for the Reykjavík North constituency .

Prime Minister of Iceland (1991-2004)

After the parliamentary elections in Iceland in 1991 , which brought the victory of Davíðs Independence Party, he formed a coalition with the Social Democratic Party and replaced Steingrímur Hermannsson in the office of Icelandic Prime Minister.

In the parliamentary elections in Iceland in 1995 , the Independence Party lost a seat in parliament, but remained the strongest party; Davíð then decided to end the cooperation with the Social Democratic Party, which had lost three seats in the election, and to form a government with the strengthened Progress Party .

From the 1990s, Davíð Oddsson campaigned for the retrial in the Guðmundur and Geirfinnur cases and also provided financial support to the main defendant Sævar Ciesielski. In a speech at Alþingi in 1998, he heavily criticized the investigation and prosecution of the case after the Hæstiréttur , the Supreme Court of Iceland, ruled that it would not try the case again.

After the parliamentary elections in Iceland in 1999 , which made the Independence Party stronger, Davíð continued this coalition.

After Þorsteinn Pálsson's resignation as Minister of Fisheries , Davíð briefly took over this position between May 11, 1999 and May 28, 1999.

After his re-election in 2003 , which brought significant losses for Davíðs party, it was negotiated that he will hand over his office to his deputy Halldór Ásgrímsson of the coalition partner of the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) in autumn 2004 .

Towards the end of his tenure he got into political difficulties. For the first time in the history of Iceland, President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson refused to sign a law that had been passed by a majority of the Prime Minister's coalition. His health is also troubling him, so that he had to undergo two major operations. On September 15, 2004, he moved to the office of Foreign Minister. On September 7, 2005 Davíð announced that he would give up his political office and move to the head of the Icelandic Central Bank . His successor in the office of foreign minister, as party chairman and finally as prime minister was Geir Haarde .

Central bank chief

As head of the central bank , Davíð Oddsson came under massive criticism during the financial crisis in 2008 , after the value of the Icelandic krona had more than halved within a few days in October 2008 and Iceland was on the verge of national bankruptcy. Several demonstrations called for his resignation and that of Prime Minister Geir Haarde . The new Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir also called on Davíð to resign on February 2, 2009, one day after taking office. Since the latter refused, however, the new government saw itself compelled to change the laws on the central bank in order to remove Davíð from office: Among other things, the number of "governors" was limited from three to one plus deputy, and the bank manager has to be able to present a university degree in economics in the future . On February 26, 2009 Davíð could be relieved of his office in order to appoint the Norwegian economist Svein Harald Øygard as head of the central bank the following day .

Presidential candidacy

At the beginning of May 2016, Davíð Oddsson announced that he would run as a candidate for the presidential election. In polls in the run-up to the election, he was long - by a clear margin - in second place after the historian Guðni Th. Jóhannesson , but ultimately only came fourth in the election results after the election winner Guðni, the entrepreneur Halla Tómasdóttir and the writer Andri Snær Magnason .

Political positions

Davíð Oddsson visits George W. Bush

Davið Oddsson supported the USA in their war missions in Afghanistan and Iraq despite criticism from the Icelandic population. He is critical of the EU .

author

In addition to his political work, Davíð has written plays, poems and short stories. For example the book Nokkrir góðir dagar án Guðnýjar 1996. It was published in 2001 in German translation as Schöne Tage ohne Gudny . His short story Glæpur skekkur húsnæðisstofnun was filmed in 2003 by Hrafn Gunnlaugsson under the title Opinberun Hannesar .

Publications

Nokkrir góðir dagar án Guðnýjar , short stories, 1996 (German: Schöne Tage ohne Gudny , Steidl, 2001, ISBN 3-88243-784-7 )

Web links

Commons : Davíð Oddsson - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Profile on the homepage of the Icelandic Parliament (isl.)
Literature by and about Davíð Oddsson in the catalog of the German National Library
Davíð Oddsson in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

↑ cf. z. B. http://www.grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/David-Oddsson-coeditor-of-Morgunbladid Accessed February 12, 2011

↑ Frambjóðendur til kjörs forseta Íslands 2016 ( Icelandic ) Ministry of Interior of Iceland (Innanríkisráðuneytið). Retrieved July 2, 2016.

↑ ^a ^b ^c David Oddsson, LL.D., October 19, 2000 ( English ) University of Manitoba. Retrieved May 15, 2016.

↑ ^a ^b ^c Davíð Oddsson ( Icelandic ) Althing . April 13, 2015. Retrieved May 15, 2016.

↑ Davíð Oddsson styrkti Sævar Ciesielski. In: ruv.is. July 25, 2018, accessed June 11, 2020 .

↑ Ekki eitt dómsmorð heldur mörg. In: mbl.is. October 7, 1998, accessed June 11, 2020 (Icelandic).

↑ sam / Reuters : Protests in Iceland: "David out!" . In: Spiegel Online . October 10, 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2016.

^ Sda : Resignation of the Icelandic head of government requested . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . October 26, 2008. Retrieved May 15, 2016.

↑ Alex: David Oddsson just will not quit ( English ) In: IceNews . February 9, 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2016.

^ Hallgrímur Indriðason: Davíð Oddsson býður sig fram til forseta ( Icelandic ) RÚV. May 8, 2016. Retrieved July 2, 2016.

↑ Fylgi Við Höllu Tómasdóttur tekur á rás ( Icelandic ) Kjarninn. June 5, 2016. Retrieved July 2, 2016.

↑ Forsetakosningar 2016 ( Icelandic ) RÚV. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 2, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ruv.is