Iceland’s Foreign Minister Bjarni Benediktsson will be the country’s next prime minister, replacing Katrin Jakobsdottir who resigned from the post last week to run for president.
Iceland’s RÚV public broadcaster reported that Benediktsson became the country’s PM following an agreement between the Independence Party, which he leads, the Progressive Party and the outgoing PM’s Left-Greens.
He said he intends to ensure that the new government is politically stable, and listed disability issues, energy procurement and bills, inflation and immigration as key policy areas, per xd.is.
Benediktsson previously served as prime minister of Iceland for 10 months from January to November 2017. He also served as the country’s finance minister, but resigned last fall following an opinion issued by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that he hadn’t been qualified to handle the March 2022 sale of shares in Íslandsbanki to private investors.
He took office as foreign minister Oct. 14.
