Iceland’s Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir has decided to run for president, which has led to a shake-up in the government’s executive membership, including the important position of Fisheries Minister. The government is led by a fragile coalition of parties from the right and from the left, and news reports have called some of the ministerial reshuffling political “horse trading.”
Bjarkey Olsen Gunnarsdóttir takes the fisheries post from Svandís Svavarsdóttir, who held the job from November 2021 and has been placed in the newly created position of Infrastructure Minister. Gunnarsdóttir comes from a series of increasingly important political jobs, including municipal councilor, district association president, municipal council president, and member of parliament, where she has belonged to several committees.
In the international arena, Gunnarsdóttir has served on the Icelandic delegation of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and European Economic Area (EEA) Parliamentary Committees, among other positions. She completed her B.Ed. degree at the University of Iceland with an emphasis on information technology and social sciences in 2005, and a diploma in education and career counselling at the University of Iceland in 2008
The new fisheries minister therefore brings valuable experience in politics, if not fisheries, to the job. This will prove useful as she tries to repair damage caused by her predecessor regarding commercial whaling. Former fisheries minister Svavarsdóttir had imposed a temporary ban on whaling, an action that a Parliamentary Ombudsman later declared illegal. But the political damage was done and the minister upset important industry and political interests
The new fisheries chief says she has not yet formed firm opinions on the whaling issue – an international as well as domestic controversy, as Iceland is one of only a handful of countries that still allows whaling. “I’m not going to publicize any stance on these contentious issues; I just want to delve into it with the good people here at the Ministry, understand the situation before I express an opinion. It’s a sensible approach,” she said.
While resolution of the whaling controversy is not yet in sight, the government reshuffle brings a fresh and politically experienced eye to the issue.