Reykjavik (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Iceland appoints Kristrun Frostadottir as prime minister, leading a new government with female leaders and focusing on economic stability.
The president of Iceland Halla Tómasdóttir, designated a new government and appointed Social Democratic party leader Kristrun Frostadottir as prime minister, RUV noted. Frostadottir’s centre-left Social Democratic Alliance became the largest party in a vote on Nov. 30, securing 20.8% of the votes and accumulating 15 seats in the 63-seat Althingi, Iceland’s parliament and her union government will also possess the centrist People’s Party and the left-leaning, pro-European Reform Party, RUV stated.
Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, head of the Reform Party, was designated as minister of foreign affairs, it added. It will be the first time in Iceland that the heads of all the governing parties will be females and the first time that the government will have a female prime minister and a female president – Halla Tomasdottir – simultaneously.
It has come to light that the leaders of the three-block parties hugged after they inked the government contract individually. Frostadottir, 36 years old will be the most youthful prime minister in Icelandic history. The new bloc replaces a government led by Bjarni Benediktsson’s conservative Independence group as well as the Left-Green Movement and the centre-right Progressive Party.
Earlier, Iceland’s president invited Social Democratic Party leader Kristrun Frostadottir to create a new coalition government after her party concluded first in the parliamentary election. Frostadottir who has supported the Nordic welfare model, has promised to tackle a cost-of-living problem flashed by high inflation and borrowing expenses.
The critical issue for the next government must be to keep the economy sound and in a good place… to create persistent conditions for reducing interest rates and inflation,
Frostadottir said.
