The Alþingi,anglicised as Althingi or Althing,is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at Þingvellir,about 45 kilometres (28 mi) east of what later became the country's capital,Reykjavík. After Iceland's union with Norway in 1262,the Althing lost its legislative power,which was not restored until 1904 when Iceland gained home rule from Denmark. For 641 years,the Althing did not serve as the parliament of Iceland;ultimate power rested with the Norwegian,and subsequently the Danish throne. Even after Iceland's union with Norway in 1262,the Althing still held its sessions at Þingvellir until 1800,when it was discontinued. It was restored in 1844 by royal decree and moved to Reykjavík. The restored unicameral legislature first came together in 1845 and after 1874 operated in two chambers with an additional third chamber taking on a greater role as the decades passed until 1991 when Althing became once again unicameral. The present parliament building,the Alþingishús,was built in 1881,made of hewn Icelandic stone. The unicameral parliament has 63 members,and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional representation. The current speaker of the Althing is Birgir Ármannsson.
Sveinn Björnsson was the first president of Iceland (1944–1952).
Ásgeir Ásgeirsson was the second president of Iceland,from 1952 to 1968. He was a Freemason and served as Grand Master of the Icelandic Order of Freemasons. He also served as the prime minister of Iceland from 3 June 1932 to 28 July 1934 for the Progressive Party. Ásgeir is the only person in Iceland to date to serve both as president and prime minister.
The Progressive Party is an agrarian political party in Iceland.
Kristján Þór Júlíusson is an Icelandic politician,a member of Alþingi and former Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture. He completed degrees in Icelandic,literature and teaching at the University of Iceland but most of his education has been concerned with seamanship. He is a certified steersman and captain and worked in that field for several years. He is married to Guðbjörg Ringsted and they have four children;María,Júlíus,Gunnar and Þorsteinn.
Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir is an Icelandic politician,who has been chairwoman of the Liberal Reform Party since 2017.
Iceland is heavily integrated into the European Union via the Agreement on the European Economic Area and the Schengen Agreement,despite its status as a non-EU member state. Iceland applied for membership in 2009. The Minister for Foreign Affairs sent a letter in 2015 that ended the application process.
Stefán Jóhann Stefánsson was the first actual minister of Foreign Affairs in Iceland from 18 November 1941 to 17 January 1942. He was prime minister of Iceland from 4 February 1947 to 6 December 1949. He was first elected to the Althing in 1934 but did not get reelected in 1937. From 1942 to 1953,he regained his seat in the Althing. He was chairman of the now defunct Social Democratic Party (Alþýðuflokkurinn) from 1938 to 1952. He was ambassador of Iceland in Denmark from 1957 to 1965. He was minister for social affairs from 1939 to 1941 and Minister of Foreign and Social Affairs from 1941 to 1942. He was Prime-Minister when Iceland joined NATO in 1949;leading a coalition consisting of his own Social Democratic Party together with the Independence Party and Progressive Party.
Bjarni Benediktsson was an Icelandic politician of the Independence Party who served as prime minister of Iceland from 1963 to 1970. His father,Benedikt Sveinsson (1877–1954),was a leader in the independence movement in Iceland and a member of the Althingi from 1908 to 1931.
Pétur Haraldsson Blöndal was an Icelandic parliamentarian in the Icelandic Independence Party and was president in the committees of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe,Social Affairs Committee and Health and Ensurance Committee.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Iceland:
Bjarni Benediktsson,known colloquially as Bjarni Ben,is an Icelandic politician,who has served as the prime minister of Iceland since April 2024,and previously from January to November 2017. He has been the leader of the Icelandic Independence Party since 2009,and served as Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs from 2013 to 2017,a post he later retained under Katrín Jakobsdóttir and held until his resignation in October 2023. After serving briefly as the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2023 to 2024,Bjarni became prime minister again on 9 April 2024.
Northwest is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing,the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Northwestern in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional representation for elections to the Althing. It was renamed Northwest in 2003 when the Western and Westfjords constituencies were merged into the Northwestern constituency following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland. Northwest consists of the regions of Northwestern,Western and Westfjords. The constituency currently elects seven of the 63 members of the Althing using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2021 parliamentary election it had 21,541 registered electors.
Árni Þór Sigurðsson is an Icelandic diplomat and former member of the Althing. He is currently the ambassador of Iceland to Denmark,and previously served as ambassador to Finland and to the Russian Federation.
The 2016 Icelandic anti-government protests were a series of protests against the Icelandic government following the release of the Panama Papers.
The following lists events that happened in 1968 in Iceland.
Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir is an Icelandic lawyer and politician who has been a member of the Althing for the Reykjavík South constituency since 2016. She also served as the Secretary of the Independence Party from 2015 to 2019. In September 2019,she was named the Minister of Justice. In November 2021,she was named the Minister of Higher Education,Science and Innovation.
Hallgrímur Sveinsson was an Icelandic prelate who serviced as Bishop of Iceland from 1889 till 1908.
On 12 November 2019,WikiLeaks began publishing what it called the Fishrot Files,a collection of thousands of documents and email communication by employees of one of Iceland's largest fish industry companies,Samherji,that indicated that the company had paid hundreds of millions ISK to high ranking politicians and officials in Namibia with the objective of acquiring the country's coveted fishing quota. That same day,Jóhannes Stefánsson,the former general manager of Samherji in Namibia and a whistleblower working with anti-corruption authorities in Namibia,and other countries,stated on the investigative TV-program Kveikur on RÚV that Samherji's CEO and biggest shareholder,Þorsteinn Már Baldvinsson,authorized the bribe payments.
The Klaustur Affair,also known in Iceland as Klaustur Recordings(Klaustursupptökurnar) or Klausturgate was a political scandal in Iceland triggered by audio recordings of a group Althing parliamentarians made without their knowledge at the Reykjavík bar Klaustur in late November,2018. In the recordings,the parliamentarians make sexist remarks about some of their colleagues and discuss the appointment of an ambassador as a political favour.
