Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir resigned on Friday and launched a bid to rrun as president, ending weeks of speculation.
She made the announcement on her social media account, saying the president needs to understand the dynamics of politics and society and protect Iceland’s interests on the international stage.
Current serving as prime minister and chairman of the Left-Green Movement, the 48-year-old premier will officially resign from both roles on Sunday.
Iceland will hold a vote on June 1 to elect its new head of state, a post which is largely ceremonial.
The island nation of almost 400,000 people faces uncertainty after recent volcanic eruptions that triggered the indefinite evacuation of thousands of people, adding to pressures on an economy already reeling from high inflation and soaring interest rates.
When she was elected prime minister in 2017 she said her current mandate in Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, and the oldest legislature in the world, would be her last. “It is now the case that I have been in politics since 2002 and even longer since I was in university politics before,” she said. “It has been brewing with me this winter that now is the time to say goodbye. Everyone has their time in politics, and my time had simply come.”
She said the low polling of the Left-Greens had no bearing on her decision to resign her post and run for president.
The latest polling indicated that the current coalition government comprising Katrín’s Left-Greens, the Independence Party and the Progressive Party would not resist if elections were held today.
The Social Democrats, on the other hand, are polling their highest numbers since 2009 when they last formed government in the wake of the economic collapse.
She informed her Cabinet of her decision at a meeting Friday morning, before her announcement went live.
Icelandic PM Katrin Jakobsdottir hailed ‘champion of democracy’ and ‘gender equality’ in Romania
