Johanna Sigurðardóttir

Another short article that I was intending to put into my, now no-existent, daily internet LGBT magazine.

When Johanna Sigurðardóttir was elected Prime Minister of Iceland the populace barely batted an eye at the fact that she was the first openly gay head of government in the modern times. This has a lot to do with attitudes in the country as a whole, but almost certainly her political record attests to her suitability for the role.

Sigurðardóttir began her working life as a flight attendant and was active in the trade union from very early on. Presiding over the Board of the Icelandic Cabin Crew Association in 1966 and 1969 and then over the Board of Scolurnar, Association of Former Stewardesses in 1975. She was also a member of the Board of the Commercial Workers' Union from 1976 to 1983. These terms obviously stood her in good stead for her future in governmental politics.

During this time, in 1978, she was elected to the Althing, Iceland's parliament, as a member of the Social Democratic Party [SDP] representing Reykjavik. Her career boomed with a term as deputy speaker of the Althing in 1979 and then again in 1983-4. She was then elected as vice-chairman of the SDP in 1984, a posting which she retained until 1993. Sigurðardóttir also served as Minister of Social Affairs between 1987 and 1994, serving on four separate cabinets. She left the SDP in 1994 after losing a leadership contest. She formed her own party, Þjóðvaki (loosely translated as National Movement, or Awakening of the Nation), a party which was joined by members of the former communist People's Alliance. The following year the party won four seats in parliament. In 2000 Þjóðvaki and the SDP re-merged as the Social Democratic Alliance [SDA].

An active member of the opposition from this time until 2003, Sigurðardóttir was once again elected as deputy speaker of the Althing. In 2007 the SDA returned to government in a coalition with the Independence Party and Sigurðardóttir was named as Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security.

After financial disaster for Iceland forced Prime Minister Geir Haarde to resign in January of 2009, the President, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, asked the SDA and the Left-Green Movement to form a new government in preparation for elections in the Spring. Sigurðardóttir was proposed as Prime Minister for this new government because of her popularity, having a 73% approval rating in a Capacent Gallup poll taken the previous December (the highest rating of all ministers and the only minister to improve their rating that year), along with her good relations with the Left-Green Movement.

After strong pressure from the populace, an election was held on 25th April 2009 and the outgoing coalition government under Johanna Sigurðardóttir retained the majority of seats in the Althing. On 10th May the new government was announced and Johanna remained as Prime Minister, quite aptly, as Iceland's longest-serving member of Parliament she is probably the most highly qualified.

Taking this position was proof that she lived up to her promise in 1994, upon losing the leadership vote for the SDP, she raised a fist in the air and shouted "Minn timi mun koma!" ("My time will come!"). How true she was.