Iceland appoints new experienced PM

Iceland's conservative party leader Bjarni Benediktsson became the country's new prime minister on April 9, his party said, after the previous PM resigned last week to seek the presidency.

The Independence Party's Benediktsson, one of Iceland's most experienced politicians, was appointed following an agreement by three ruling coalition partners, Barron’s reports.

Having served as foreign minister since October 2023, he was previously finance minister from 2017 to 2023 and prime minister from January to November 2017.

The 54-year-old is also a controversial figure who has been embroiled in a number of scandals, including being named in the "Panama Papers" worldwide tax-evasion leaks in 2016 and accused of wrongdoing during Iceland's financial collapse in 2008.

Benediktsson, whose Independence Party is the largest in Iceland's parliament with 16 seats, on Tuesday said the three-party left-right coalition would continue with the same priorities as previously, including immigration, education, employment and energy transition.

The previous prime minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir, announced last week that she was resigning in order to run for the post of president in Iceland's upcoming June elections.

Jakobsdottir, 48, had led the left-right coalition since 2017.

"The government wants to stand for political stability," the Independence Party said in a statement announcing Benediktsson as the new prime minister.

He was "keen not to let Katrín Jakobsdottir's removal from government upset politics," it said.

In a cabinet reshuffle, finance minister Thordis Gylfadottir, also of the Independence Party, resumed the position of foreign minister she previously held from 2021-2023, while Sigurdur Ingi Johansson of the Progressive Party took over the finance portfolio.