Opposition gunning for PM resignation
Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, Prime Minister of Iceland. Photo: mbl.is/Styrmir Kári
Iceland’s opposition parties are gearing up for a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, following revelations of his wife’s offshore assets in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands .
According to a post on social media by Pirate Party MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the leaders of the four opposition parties in Iceland are meeting today to discuss a possible vote of no confidence.
Critics claim that the Prime Minister hid the existence of a BVI-based company owned by his wife, which is claiming millions from the bankruptcy estate of Iceland’s crashed.
The leaders of Iceland's four opposition parties are discussing the PM's fitness for the job.
Gunnlaugsson’s major involvement – as PM – in striking a deal with the claimants of the banks’ assets while at the same time being closely related to one of them is seen by some as an unacceptable conflict of interest.
The PM has categorically states that the company has never been hidden away in a ‘tax haven’ as full taxes from the company’s operations have always been paid in Iceland. He is on record as saying that he hopes the opposition do not “chicken out” of bringing forward their no-confidence challenge .
The PM's wife owns a company based in well-known tax haven British Virgin Islands. Photo: Wikipedia/Henry aw
“All I have ever done is defend the public interests – at the expense of other, including my wife, who have lost out,” Gunnlaugsson has said.
On top of this planned political manoeuvre, over 13,000 have now signed an online petition demanding the PM’s resignation.
