Leaders
All former chairmen of the party have held the office of the Prime Minister of Iceland: Ólafur Thors, Bjarni Benediktsson, Jóhann Hafstein, Geir Hallgrímsson, Þorsteinn Pálsson, Davíð Oddsson and Geir H. Haarde. Jón Þorláksson, the first chairman of the Independence party was Prime Minister for the Conservative party prior to the foundation of the Independence party. Gunnar Thoroddsen, who was the party's vice chairman 1974–1981, was Iceland's PM from 1980 to 1983, but the Independence Party did not officially support his government, although some MPs in the party did.
| Leader | From | To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Jón Þorláksson | 29 May 1929 | 2 October 1934 |
| 2nd | Ólafur Thors | 2 October 1934 | 22 October 1961 |
| 3rd | Bjarni Benediktsson | 22 October 1961 | 10 July 1970 |
| 4th | Jóhann Hafstein | 10 July 1970 | 12 October 1973 |
| 5th | Geir Hallgrímsson | 12 October 1973 | 6 November 1983 |
| 6th | Þorsteinn Pálsson | 6 November 1983 | 10 March 1991 |
| 7th | Davíð Oddsson | 10 March 1991 | 16 October 2005 |
| 8th | Geir Haarde | 16 October 2005 | 29 March 2009 |
| 9th | Bjarni Benediktsson | 29 March 2009 | Present |
Read more about this topic: Independence Party (Iceland)
Famous quotes containing the word leaders:
“The high sentiments always win in the end, the leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.”
—George Orwell (1903–1950)
“The parallel between antifeminism and race prejudice is striking. The same underlying motives appear to be at work, namely fear, jealousy, feelings of insecurity, fear of economic competition, guilt feelings, and the like. Many of the leaders of the feminist movement in the nineteenth-century United States clearly understood the similarity of the motives at work in antifeminism and race discrimination and associated themselves with the anti slavery movement.”
—Ashley Montagu (b. 1905)
“Signal smokes, war drums, feathered bonnets against the western sky. New messiahs, young leaders are ready to hurl the finest light cavalry in the world against Fort Stark. In the Kiowa village, the beat of drums echoes in the pulsebeat of the young braves. Fighters under a common banner, old quarrels forgotten, Comanche rides with Arapaho, Apache with Cheyenne. All chant of war. War to drive the white man forever from the red man’s hunting ground.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)