Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson has announced that Ólöf Nordal is to be appointed Minister of the Interior, Vísir reports.
Ólöf, who holds a law degree, currently heads the Central Bank’s board of directors and at one time served as Vice-Chair for the Independence Party. Ólöf will be taking over for Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir who resigned after an assistant of hers was convicted for leaking falsified information about asylum seeker Tony Omos to the press in an attempt to influence public discourse. As she is not currently an MP, Ólöf is set to become be the 20th minister in to be appointed from outside of parliament
Bjarni announced Ólöf’s appointment to Independence Party MPs at a party meeting earlier this morning. Speaking to the press after the meeting ended, Bjarni revealed that he initially reached out to current Speaker of Alþingi Einar K. Guðfinnsson to man the post once Hanna Birna announced her resignation, and that Einar had declined the offer.
Hanna Birna will formally hand over the reigns at Bessastaðir today at 13:00.
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