Embattled Prime Minister Sigmunder David Gunlaugsson is facing growing calls for him to step down because of reported offshore financial dealings by him and his wife that opposition lawmakers say show a massive conflict of interest with his job.
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Grimsson told a news conference on Tuesday he would not grant the prime minister’s request on the basis of Gunnlaugsson using the threat of dissolving parliament “as a bargaining chip in his negotiations with his coalition partner”. There were contradictions as officials first said Gunnlaugsson had resigned as Prime Minister, statements that were later contradicted by the press secretary’s communique, which indicated he was only stepping down for a period of time.
Earlier Tuesday, Gunnlaugsson had asked Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson to call early elections and dissolve the current Parliament, the BBC reports, adding that Grimsson refused.
The Independence party’s chairman, finance minister Bjarni Benediktsson, has said he hopes they’ll reach an agreement in the coming days to save the coalition.
France’s far-right National Front party said Wednesday it was filing law suits for defamation against media who imply that it or leader Marine Le Pen – who plans to run in the 2017 presidential race – may be implicated in the Panama papers scandal.
Benediktsson, head of Iceland’s Independence Party, said he planned to meet with Johannsson to seek cooperation.
Mr Gunnlauggsson insists he sold his shares to his wife and has denied any wrongdoing.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Malaysian Prime Minister Najb Razak, former Chinese PM Li Peng, South Africa President Jacob Zuma and former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan also feature in the list through their children or close relatives.
The Panama Papers showed the premier’s wife owned an offshore company with big claims on Iceland’s banks, an undeclared conflict of interest for Gunnlaugsson. Other protesters pelted the parliament building with yogurt and eggs.
The 41-year-old, who had been under pressure to resign after the leaked documents revealed that he and his wife Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands and had placed millions of dollars there.
United States president Barack Obama says tax avoidance is a global problem his government is trying to end. Gunnlaugsson, in essenece, said: whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…
“There can not be one set of tax rules for the wealthy elite and another for the rest of us”, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said. “Iceland can not be the only western European democratic country with a political leadership in that position”.
The journalism group reported that among Wintris’ more notable holdings were bonds of three major Icelandic banks that collapsed in 2008. “He told us to believe in Iceland”, Sigmundur Halldorsson, a 49-year-old Reykjavik-born web developer, said by telephone.
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Since then Icelanders have weathered a recession and been subjected to tough capital controls – another reason the prime minister’s offshore holdings rankle many. Gunnlaugsson negotiated a deal for Iceland’s bankrupt banks at a time when he was a claimant in those banks.
