Geir Hallgrímsson
| Geir Hallgrímsson | |
|---|---|
| 16th Prime Minister of Iceland | |
|
In office 28 August 1974 – 1 September 1978 |
|
| President | Kristján Eldjárn |
| Preceded by | Ólafur Jóhannesson |
| Succeeded by | Ólafur Jóhannesson |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
16 December 1925 Reykjavík, Iceland |
| Died | 1 September 1990 (aged 64) Reykjavík, Iceland |
| Political party | Independence Party |
| Alma mater |
University of Iceland Harvard University |
Geir Hallgrímsson (16 December 1925 – 1 September 1990) was the 16th Prime Minister of Iceland for the Independence Party from 28 August 1974 to 1 September 1978. Before that he had been mayor of Reykjavík and a member of the Icelandic parliament, the Althing.
Geir Hallgrímsson was born in Reykjavík and educated at Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík and at the University of Iceland, where he studied law; he spent a year in the US at Harvard University, studying law and economics.
Geir was mayor of Reykjavík from 1959 to 1972. During his term he greatly expanded the city and improved its infrastructure. Under his guidance the geothermal heating system was expanded to the whole city; it had previously only been available to less than half. He also improved the streets by turning the mostly gravel roads into modern asphalt streets. He was popular as mayor and in an open primary for the municipal elections he won 99% of the votes in 1970.
In the fall of 1970 he came in number one in the primary for elections to Althing, ahead of prime minister Jóhann Hafstein and former mayor Gunnar Thoroddsen. He was a member of parliament from 1970 (taking his permanent seat with the death of prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson) until 1983. In 1971 he was elected vice chairman of the Independence Party and in 1973 he became chairman after Jóhann Hafstein resigned for health reasons. In 1974 he led the Independence Party to one of its greatest victories. The party won 42.5% of the vote and 25 out of 60 parliamentary seats. He then led a coalition government with the Progressive party from 1974 to 1978.
His government expanded the fishing limits to 200 miles (370 km) and had to fight Britain in the 'Cod War'. After Iceland had broken diplomatic relations with Britain in 1976 over the dispute, negotiations led to an agreement in June that year. According to the agreement Britain accepted the 200 mile zone.
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