Jón Þorláksson

Jón Þorláksson ( born March 3 1877 in Vesturhópshólum Vestur - Húnavatnssýsla, † March 20, 1935 in Reykjavík ) was an Icelandic politician of the Conservative Party ( Íhaldsflokkurinn ) and of the resulting Independence Party ( Sjálfstæðisflokkur ) and Prime Minister of Iceland.

Biography

Studies, career and climb to the Minister of Finance

Jón Þorláksson was born into a peasant family in Vesturhópshólar in Húnavatnssýsla in the north- west of Iceland, which were just as his two sisters and his brother are very talented. His sister Björg Þorláksdóttir 1926 was the first Icelander who received a doctorate, which was conferred by the Sorbonne.

Jón even earned his university entrance qualification ( Stúdentspróf ) 1897 on Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, Iceland 's oldest high school, his class and with the highest ever recorded there average mark. Following this, he completed a study of civil engineering at the Polytechnic School of Copenhagen, where he graduated in 1903. After his return he was appointed in 1905 to the Supreme engineer Islands and supervised as such until 1917, the construction of roads and bridges, and sat down for the construction of hydroelectric power plants and the use of abundant geysers for heating of residential buildings. In 1917, he left the public service and reasonable for a one company for the import of building materials, but on the other hand was working for several construction projects as an independent engineer.

His political career began in 1921 with the Jón Elected to the Althing on a list, which formed a contrast to the previously founded the Socialist Party. Soon after, he was, who was more respected than popular, leader of the Conservative and Liberal Members of Parliament. This resulted in 1924, the Conservative Party ( Íhaldsflokkurinn ), whose chairman he was. On March 22, 1924, he was appointed by Prime Minister Jón Magnússon Minister of Finance ( Fjármálaráðherra ) in its reigning until July 8, 1926 the Cabinet. During this time, increased in 1925, the exchange rate of the Icelandic krona far more than the initiated by Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill exchange rate ( gold standard ) for the British pound.

Prime Minister 1926-1927 and political ideas

After the sudden death of Prime Minister Jón Magnússon on 23 June 1926, he succeeded him as Prime Minister of Iceland and at the same time retained the post of finance minister in a cabinet, which consisted only of Industry and Minister of Justice Magnús Guðmundsson beside him. After the electoral defeat of the party in the Konvservativen Althingwahlen 1927 succeeded him Tryggvi Þórhallsson on the Progressive Party. Jón itself was leader of the opposition in parliament and was after independence party resulting from the merger of the Conservative Party and the smaller Liberal Party ( Sjálfstæðisflokkur ) in 1929 its first chairman.

From 1932 until his death he was Mayor of Reykjavík. Due to his failing health, he joined in 1934 as chairman of the Independence Party and was, as such, his former deputy Ólafur Thors.

As prime minister, as well as opposition leader, he represented classical liberal ideas, which he founded in economic matters is essentially the idea of the well-known Swedish professor of economics Gustav Cassel. In a magazine article from 1926 he distinguished here between conservative and radical ideas on the one hand and libertanischen and authoritarian thought on the other side. He took the view that these two types of opinions in all four combinations might exist, which is why the left-wing or socialist parties, for example, both radical and authoritaristisch were, on the other hand also Libertaner would sometimes be radidal. However, they should be conservative at the time, in his view, because its essential object of the lessons drawn in the 18th century and 19th century battles and the defense of this freedom against socialism was the preservation of freedom. For this reason, he described himself as a conservative Libertaner. In a speech to the annual general meeting of the Conservative Party in 1929, he pointed to a short, but clear that the classical liberal ideas of man through the working out of their own personal interests in a competitive environment unintentionally serve the public interest. In addition, he was emphatic on free trade and limited government. In public, therefore he also called for the privatization of two State-owned commercial banks. During the immediately started the Great Depression of 1929 and later during the Second World War, the Independence Party did not follow his political ideas. Only Davíð Oddsson, Iceland's Prime Minister between 1991 and 2004, relied again on Jón Þorlákssons intellectual heritage with regard to privatization, liberalization and stabilization of the Icelandic economy.

Publications

• " Brændselsproblemet på Iceland ", 1929

Sources and background literature

• Hannes H. Gissurarson: " Jón Þorláksson forsætisráðherra ", Reykjavík 1992.
• Rulers.org