By Baron Henri Estramant
Saturday, 25 June 2016, Reykjavik: Guðni Jóhannesson is Iceland’s novel president-elect. Jóhanesson won 39.1 percent of the vote, or more precisely 71,356 ballots.
Dr Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, shall become Iceland’s sixth president. He was born on 26 June 1968, making him the youngest Iceland president ever elected. He holds a PhD in history from Queen Mary University of London.
Jóhannesson is hitherto an associate professor at the University of Iceland. His wife is Eliza Reid hails from Canada. She is a journalist and businesswoman.
In addition to working as associate professor, Jóhannesson has published numerous works on history, including works on the Cold Wars and the Icelandic presidency.
The president-elect will be inaugurated on 1 August at Bessastaðir, the Icelandic official residence for the head of state.
Iceland has been a republic since a referendum on 17 June 1944 called for the abrogation of the Kingdom of Iceland in order to be replaced by a parliamentarian republic, and the severance of ties with Denmark. Until then, Iceland and Denmark shared a monarch as their head of state, namely King Kristján X of Iceland (Christian X of Denmark). Denmark was in charged of Iceland’s defense as well as foreign affairs albeit it had become a fully-fledged sovereign kingdom on 1 December 1918.
For more information:
President of Iceland: http://english.forseti.is
Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson: http://gudnith.is/en/front_page/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guðni_Th._Jóhannesson
