Iceland PM Resignes after geeting protest againstPanama Papers revelations

 

Image source

Iceland’s embattled prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, has become the first major casualty of the Panama Papers, stepping aside from his office amid mounting public outrage that his family had sheltered money offshore.
What was planned as a mass protest in Reykjavik on Tuesday evening turned to muted satisfaction as demonstrators vented their anger following revelations that Gunnlaugsson once owned – and his wife still owns – an offshore investment company with multimillion-pound claims on Iceland’s failed banks.
“We were hoping parliament would be dissolved,” said Steingrimur Oli Einarsson, a fish oil trader, one of a few hundred to brave a freezing northeasterly wind on parliament square in downtown Reykjavik.
“Of course we’re happy the prime minister has stepped down. But we are not satisfied with who is taking over from him, and with the fact that the government itself is still there.”

The Panama Papers: 

how the world’s rich and famous hide their money offshore

Guardian analysis of leaked papers will show how influential people including heads of government have exploited tax havens

Read more

Gunnlaugsson’s office said in a statement that he was not resigning, but “handing over the office of prime minister for an unspecified time” to Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, the agriculture and fisheries minister.
Gunnlaugsson was “very proud” of his success resurrecting Iceland’s economy after the 2008 financial crisis, the statement said, and “especially proud of his government’s handling of ... the creditors of the failed Icelandic banks”.
Outside parliament, Sigrin Eiroksdottir, a pre-school teacher, said the occasion “doesn’t really feel like any kind of victory. There is so much still to put right in this country in terms of ethics, of how the world looks at us.”
Lara Gardarsdottir, an illustrator, said: “It’s good news he’s resigned, yes. But we need far more drastic change. We’re left with the same gang in charge. And the guy who’s replacing the prime minister, a couple of days ago he was saying he saw nothing wrong in what he’d done.”
The move still requires the formal approval of both the junior partner in the centre-right coalition government, the Independence party, and Iceland’s president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, and a snap election is still a possibility.

Iceland is in crisis mode. It feels like 2009 all over again

Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson went from people’s saviour to arrogant leader unseated by offshore dealings revealed in the Panama Papers. For Icelanders, this hurts

Read more

The country’s leftwing opposition parties, who earlier this week presented a motion of no confidence in the government, said they were by no means satisfied. “It is clear our demand for new elections still stands,” the Left Green party leader, Katri­n Jakobsdottir, said.
The prime minister, who has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, had earlier sought to remain in office by asking to dissolve parliament and call new elections. But after the president turned him down, the prime minister met senior Progressive party officials and reportedly suggested himself that he step down.
The Independence party leader, finance minister Bjarni Benediktsson, whose name also appeared in the leaked documents in connection with a Seychelles-based company of which he once owned a third, was holding talks with Grímsson, who flew back early from the US to sound out all of Iceland’s parliamentary party representatives as the island’s political crisis deepened on Tuesday.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
News source:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/05/iceland-prime-minister-resigns-over-panama-papers-revelations

• Tweet
• Share
• Share
• Share
• Share