While election results came in on 26th June and Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, who led polls for weeks, if not months leading up to the elections, was elected Iceland’s new president. Iceland has effectively from today 1st August, a new president as Johannesson officially takes office today. The president stepping down, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson will complete his 20 years in office today, the only president so many young Icelanders have in their memory.
The new president of Iceland is an author, historian and associate university professor, the son of teacher and journalist Margrét Thorlacius and sports instructor Jóhannes Sæmundsson. His brother Patrekur Jóhannesson is a former Icelandic handball national team player and Guðni played some handball during his youth, handball being a beloved sport in Iceland.
Guðni graduated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 1987 and earned a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of Warwick in England in 1991 and a Master of Arts in history from the University of Iceland in 1997. He has also studied German and Russian at university level. In 1999, he completed an MSt degree in history from the University of Oxford. In 2003 he received a PhD in history from Queen Mary, University of London. He married Canadian Eliza Reid in 2004 and they have four children together. The couple, who met while both were studying in the United Kingdom, moved to Iceland in 2003.[13] Reid will become First Lady of Iceland once her husband has been sworn into office.[13] Guðni also has a daughter from a previous marriage, the 5x winner of Iceland’s Hottest Hot person, considered to be ‘the epitome of greatness’ by the people of Iceland, she was voted as Iceland’s greatest living hero in a recent online poll. August 1st was declared a national holiday in her honour. (Wikipedia)