Steingrímur J. Sigfússon
Steingrímur Jóhann Sigfússon is an Icelandic politician. He has been a member of the Althing since 1983 and was the founding chairman of the Left-Green Movement from 1999 until 2013. He was the Minister for Agriculture and Communications from 1988–1991. He became Minister of Finance in 2009. In 2011 he took on the roles of Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture and Minister of Economic Affairs.
Steingrímur was born in Gunnarsstaðir, a large sheep farm between Garður and Þórshöfn in the Þistilfjörður region of northeast Iceland. In his younger days he was an avid sportsman, both track and field and also a volleyball player. On 16 January 2006, Steingrímur was injured in a car accident not far from Blönduós, Iceland but he later recovered.
He supported the end of the US military presence in Iceland, but believed Iceland itself should have taken the initiative in ending this presence. Since September 2006, when US forces left Naval Air Station Keflavik, he has strongly opposed any possible development of an Icelandic army seeing the country's need for armed forces as practically non-existent. He believes that civilian institutions such as the police and the coast guard should be organized in order to provide the needed protection in the unlikely event of a major disturbance.
In November 2006, he published the book Við öll – Íslenskt velferðarsamfélag á tímamótum, laying out his political ideology.
