Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir [ 'jouːhanːa' sɪːɣʏrðardouʰtɪr ] (born October 4, 1942 in Reykjavík ) is an Icelandic politician ( Alliance ).

From February 2009 to May 2013, as Icelandic Prime Minister , she led a government made up of the social democratic alliance and the left-green movement before she was replaced in her office by Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson .

Life

Jóhanna was born in Reykjavík as the daughter of Sigurður Egill Ingimundarson (1913–1978), Member of Parliament and Head of Icelandic Social Security, and Karítas Guðmundsdóttir (1917–1997). She attended the Verzlunarskóli Íslands , a commercial vocational school run by the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce. After graduating in 1960, she worked from 1962 to 1971 as a stewardess for the Icelandic airline Loftleiðir and from 1971 to 1978 as a commercial clerk at the packaging manufacturer Kassagerð Reykjavíkur in Reykjavík. Since then she has been involved in the trade union movement . From 1966 to 1969 she was a board member of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association, of which she was chairman in 1966 and 1969. From 1974 to 1976 she was a board member and in 1975 chairwoman of Svölurnar , the Icelandic association of former stewardesses. From 1976 to 1983 she was a member of the board of the Reykjavík clerks' union.

politics

In 1978 she was elected to the Althing for the first time as a member of the Icelandic Social Democratic Party , to which she has been a member since then. This makes her the longest-serving Icelandic MP. From 1984 to 1993 she was vice-chairwoman of the Icelandic Social Democratic Party. From 1987 to 1994 she was Minister of Social Affairs in four governments. After she was defeated in the election for party leader in 1993, she left the Social Democratic Party of Iceland to co-found the new party Þjóðvaki ("Awakening of the Nation" or "People's Awakening"). In 2000 the two parties merged to form the alliance . From 2007 to 2009 she was again Minister of Social Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde.

As a result of the financial crisis and the resignation of the Icelandic government under Prime Minister Geir Haarde , Jóhanna was put in charge of a minority government until the new election of the Althing on April 25, 2009 . To this end, after several days of negotiations, she joined an alliance with the Left-Green movement , which was supported by the liberal Progressive Party . On February 1, 2009, she became the first woman in Iceland's history to take over as head of government.

At a delegates' meeting of the Alliance at the end of March 2009, Jóhanna was elected party leader with 98%; it replaced the politician Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir .

In the parliamentary elections on April 25, 2009 , the alliance of the Alliance and the Left-Green Movement achieved historic electoral success and received an absolute majority in the Icelandic parliament. Jóhanna formed a new government and announced that he wanted to bring Iceland into the European Union as soon as possible .

family

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (second from right) and Jónína Leósdóttir (left) on an official visit to Slovenia in 2011

Jóhanna married the bank clerk Þorvaldur Steinar Jóhannesson in 1970, with whom she has two sons. The marriage ended in divorce in 1987. In 2002 Jóhanna entered into a registered partnership with the author Jónína Leósdóttir , who has a son. Jóhanna was the first openly homosexual head of government in modern times . In June 2010, following a reform of the marriage laws, the marriage between Jóhanna and Jónína took place. The two were the first couple to make use of the new rules.