Bjarni Benediktsson has become Prime Minister of Iceland after the previous prime minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, resigned to run in the presidential elections on June 1st. Benediktsson is a member of the centre-right Independence Party, one of the three that support the current government coalition together with the Progressive Party (centre) and Jakobsdóttir’s Green Left. Benediktsson had been prime minister for less than a year in 2017, economy minister from 2017 to 2023 and then foreign minister.
Benediktsson’s appointment was approved at a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Tuesday evening, and was supported by all three governing parties. In the same session, a government reshuffle was also approved: the new government should remain in office until the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for September 2025.
Jakobsdóttir became prime minister in 2017. Abroad she is mainly known for her commitment to reducing gender discrimination: among other things, in October she participated in the national strike of Icelandic women.
The June presidential elections were called at the beginning of January after the current president, the historic Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, announced his resignation. In Iceland the prime minister is the head of government and in general the most important political figure: the president is elected by the people, but his powers are limited and he has a mostly ceremonial role.
– Read also: The women’s strike in Iceland