This weekend, Iceland is expected to welcome the world’s first openly gay prime minister. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is taking over the government because of the country’s financial collapse. Sigurðardóttir is also Iceland’s first female leader.
Barack Obama might have been America’s first black president but now Iceland can lay claim to having the world’s first openly gay prime minister. Jóhanna Sigurdardottir, the country’s 66-year-old minister of social affairs and social security, is poised to take over for Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who resigned Monday following the collapse of the country’s main banks and stock market.
After the sudden breakdown of the conservative-led coalition government on Jan. 26, the new coalition of Social Democrats and Left-Greens dubbed Sigurðardóttir as leader of the new government until the parliamentary elections expected in the spring.
Sigurdardottir, who began her career as a flight attendant, has been a member of Iceland’s Parliament for 30 years. She is in her second stint as minister of social affairs.
Sigurðardóttir announced that the government’s first task is to replace the central bank’s directors. The economy has been hit hard by the global recession and suffered serious job losses earlier in the quarter. Street protest led to the ousting of the Prime Minister Haarde, whose resignation sparked several other leavings by public ministers.
On Sigurdardottir ‘s ministry website, she lists author and playwright Jonina Leosdottir, 54, as her spouse. She has two children from an earlier marriage.
