COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Iceland’s president appointed a new government on Saturday and named Social Democratic party leader Kristrun Frostadottir as prime minister, public broadcaster RUV reported.
Frostadottir’s centre-left Social Democratic Alliance became the biggest party in a snap election on Nov. 30, and her coalition government will also include the centrist People’s Party and the left-leaning, pro-European Reform Party, RUV said.
Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, leader of the Reform Party, was appointed as minister of foreign affairs, it added.
It will be the first time in Iceland that the leaders of all the governing parties will be women, and the first time that the country will have a female prime minister and a female president – Halla Tomasdottir – simultaneously, the broadcaster said.
A live stream from RUV showed the leaders of the three coalition parties hugging after they signed the government agreement individually.
Frostadottir, 36, will be the youngest prime minister in Icelandic history, RUV said.
The new coalition replaces a government lead by Bjarni Benediktsson’s conservative Independence Party as well as the Left Green Movement and the centre-right Progressive Party.
(Reporting by Isabelle Yr Carlsson and Louise Rasmussen, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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