Ólafur Ragnar GrÃmsson
Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson [' ou ː lavʏr ' raknar ' krimsɔn ] ( born May 14, 1943 in Isafjordur ) the fifth President of the Republic of Iceland ( isländ.: Forseti Íslands ). He has held the office since 1996. 2012 was the re-election for a fifth term of office. It is the successor of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir.
Private and professional
He was born as the son of Grímur Krist Geirsson and Svanhildur Ólafsdóttir Hjartar in Isafjordur. Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson studied from 1962 to 1970 economics and political science at the University of Manchester. He was instrumental in that political science was introduced in Iceland, and was for 18 years Professor of Political Science at Reykjavík University.
From 1983 to 1985 he was editor of the newspaper Þjóðviljinn.
His first wife Guðrún Katrín Þorbergsdóttir he married in 1974, she died in 1998 from leukemia. From this marriage two daughters. Since Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson May 14, 2003 is married in second marriage with the Israeli- British -born Dorrit Moussaieff.
Policy
He spent his political apprenticeship with the liberal Progressive Party, then joined the Union of Liberal and Left ( Samtök frjálslyndra above vinstri manna ), for which he was in 1974 elected to the Althing. Then in 1978, he succeeded in re-election, this time as a candidate of the left People's Alliance, the faction leader, he was between 1980 and 1983. From 1987 to 1995, he positioned the People's Alliance as chairman in the middle of the political spectrum. From 1988 to 1991 he was Finance Minister in the second cabinet of Steingrímur Hemm. As a Member of Parliament and Minister Ólafur was known and already controversial because of its sharp and partly polemical discussion manner.
Ólafur Ragnar Grimsson refused on 2 June 2004 as the first Icelandic president to sign a bill passed by the Althing law. The previously very controversial media law could not enter into force as. He had already announced plans to rid the office of President of Iceland from its purely ceremonial role and make it more political than was usual. According to opinion polls, about 70 percent of Icelanders in favor of this approach. Ólafurs re-election on 26 June 2004 was a correspondingly significant: he received 85.6 percent of the valid votes cast. However, 20.6 percent of voters in protest gave from blank ballots. The turnout was 62.9 percent.
2008, a silent choice because no opposition candidate was begun.
In February 2009, Ólafur spoke out against the compensation German customers of Kaupthing Bank. He described it as unfair that the people of Iceland would have to bear the burdens arising from the financial crisis alone. 2010 Ólafur refused his signature to the so-called Icesave law, which should ensure the repayment of foreign savings to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, after numerous protests in the population had reformed.
In March 2012, Ólafur announced after a supporting action from the population to his reelection. In the presidential election on 30 June 2012, he received a good 52 percent of the vote. He is the first president in history that can take a fifth term of office.