jason

globeandmail.com: Iceland’s new government takes office

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A new centre-left government took office in crisis-hit Iceland Sunday, headed by the country’s first openly gay national leader.

Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir and her cabinet were officially appointed by the head of state, President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, after a tumultuous week that saw Iceland’s previous conservative government collapse over the country’s economic meltdown.

Ms. Sigurdardottir said one of her first acts “will be to change the leadership of the central bank.”

Central bank governor David Oddsson, a former prime minister, is disliked by many Icelanders, who say authorities helped cause the economic crash by failing to rein in reckless banks and businesses.

Ms. Sigurdardottir, 66, is a former flight attendant and union organizer, and served as social affairs minister in the previous government.

She is Iceland’s first female prime minister, and her cabinet is the country’s first to be split evenly between men and women.

Ms. Sigurdardottir also is the first openly gay national leader of modern times, apart from Per-Kristian Foss, a Norwegian politician who briefly served as his country’s prime minister in 2002.

The new government is a coalition of Ms. Sigurdardottir’s Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green movement, and will hold office until elections April 25.

Iceland’s economy’s an absolute mess, according to my friend lilja. I really hope that Sigurdardottir can do something.