Iceland's President states he has no offshore accounts
Grímsson's wife Dorrit Moussaief has no offshore accounts he has revealed. Screenshot
President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, says that neither he nor his wife, Dorrit Moussaieff, have offshore assets. President Grímsson was interviewed by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour this morning.
The Panama Papers scandal has already lead to the resignation of Iceland’s Prime Minister earlier this month.
Amanpour asked the president a pointed question: “I need to ask you Mr. President, do you have any offshore accounts, does your wife have any offshore accounts? Is there anything that is going to be discovered about you and your family?” To which President Grímsson responded: “No, no, no, that is not going to be the case.”
The revelations that have come out with the Panama Papers leak was a “great public service”, Grímsson said, and a wake up call and situations created as a result of the global financial system will no longer be tolerated by people in advanced economic and democratic societies.
Mr. Grímsson, who has been Iceland’s president since 1996, is seeking an unprecedented 6th term in office this summer, having reversed his previous decision to step down. This longevity puts him at the top of the world table among non-royal heads of state.
Amanpour asked about his length in office and comparison with other long term presidents such as president Lukashenko of Belarus, and whether democracy may be “compromised by having one person as president so many times.”
President Grímsson pointed out that “Iceland is one of the oldest and solid democracies on the world” with open democratic elections, implying the comparison was unfair.
The full CNN interview can be found HERE.
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his wife, Israeli-British jewellery designer and heiress to the Moussaieff jewellery empire Dorrit Moussaieff. Iceland Monitor/ Ómar Óskarsson
