Vilmundur Gylfason

Vilmundur Gylfason ( born August 7, 1948 † June 19, 1983 in Reykjavík ) was an Icelandic politician ( Alþýðuflokkurinn, later Bandalag jafnaðarmanna ), historian and poet. He was Minister for Justice, Religion and Education From October 1979 to February 1980.

Family

Vilmundurs father was the politician Gylfi Þ. Gíslason. His mother sometimes worked as a journalist Guðrún Vilmundardóttir. He had two brothers, the philosopher Þorsteinn Gylfason and the economic managers Þorvaldur Gylfason. Vilmundur was with Valgerdur Bjarnadóttir, the daughter of former prime minister of Iceland Bjarni Benediktsson, married.

Life and work

Vilmundur attended high school Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík from 1964., Where he was also editor of the school newspaper and put his degree in 1968 with an emphasis on languages ​​from. He then studied at the University of Manchester in England, where he completed in 1971 with a BA in literature and history. In 1973, he achieved an MA at the University of Exeter in the same subjects.

On his return to Iceland, he received in 1973 a position as a teacher of history at his old school, the Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, Iceland and wrote articles for newspapers. He taught until his death at the high school.

He was a friend of Jón Halldórsson Ormur, an Icelandic politician and political scientist.

Vilmundur was active in the establishment of radio programs for arts and culture, co-founder of the newspaper Helgarpósturinn and was Nytt country. He also published two volumes of poetry, Myndir above ljóðbrot in 1970 and ten years later Ljod.

On 19 June 1983 Vilmundur committed suicide by hanging himself in a drunken state in Parliament.

Policy

Vilmundurs political opinion was strongly influenced by his stay in England, and left-aligned.

The Icelandic parliament elections in 1971, he ran for the Alþýðuflokkurinn (Social Democratic Party) as the representative for the territory of the Westfjords. Within the party, he was an active participant in its activities, he was among other things a year editor of the party 's internal newspaper Alþýðublaðið. In the elections in 1978 stood as a candidate in the constituency of Vilmundur Reykjavík. From October 1979 to February 1980 he was Minister for Justice, Religion and Education under Prime Minister Benedikt Sigurðsson Gröndal and its minority government.

1982 Vilmundur left the Social Democratic Party in 1983 and founded his own party, the Bandalag jafnaðarmanna ( " Alliance for Social Equality" ). The taking place in the same year parliamentary elections he won four seats for his party.