Icelandic PM resigns in wake of Panama Papers scandal

Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has resigned, his party said today, the first major political casualty to emerge from the leak of the so-called Panama Papers financial documents.

“The prime minister told (his party’s) parliamentary group meeting that he would step down as prime minister and I will take over,” the Progressive party’s deputy leader and Agriculture Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson told a live broadcast.

Before this, Iceland’s prime minister had asked the president for permission to dissolve parliament as his government reeled from a political crisis over the so-called Panama Papers, but the president refused.

President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, who cut short a visit to the US to return to Reykjavik earlier today to deal with the crisis, told a televised press conference he wanted to consult the government’s junior coalition member before making a decision.