Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson is facing more pressure as the opposition filed a motion of no confidence against him. On Monday, protesters gathered outside the parliament who believe that Iceland's PM must resign due to conflict of interest.
Gunnlaugsson was caught under fire after Panama papers revealed that his wife owns a company offshore with a huge fortune deposited in the country's banks. Opponents accused Iceland PM a conflict of interest because he didn't open up about their family business and assets offshore from the very start, Yahoo reported. According to the PM's spokesman, the assets of the company owned by Gunnlaugsson's wife are estimated to 500 million Icelandic crowns ($4.1 million).
"I certainly won't (resign) because what we've seen is the fact that, well, my wife has always paid her taxes. We've also seen that she has avoided any conflict of interest by investing in Icelandic companies at the same time that I'm in politics," Iceland's PM told Reuters TV. "And finally, we've seen that I've been willing to put the interests of the people of Iceland first even when it's at a disadvantage to my own family."
Gunnlaugsson's scandal erupted after the Panama papers were exposed by Munich-based newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung. According to the papers, the Iceland's PM purchased an offshore company, the Wintris Inc, in the Caribbean island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands in 2007. Shortly after becoming a member of the parliament in 2009, he sold his 50% share to his wife for one dollar, IOL.Co. Za reports.
During the protest against Iceland's PM, roughly 10,000 people gathered at the parliament. All the people in the rally demanded only one thing, Gunnlaugsson's resignation, according to Reuters. An online petition for his resignation allegedly collected more than 27,000 signatures as of Monday. "What would be the most natural and the right thing to do is that (he) resign as prime minister," Birgitta Jonsdottir, the head of the Pirate Party, one of Iceland's biggest opposition parties, told Reuters.
In the midst of Iceland's protest against the PM, another opposition, the Social Democratic Alliance demanded that a new election is a must. The expose on tax evasion is one of the biggest scandals that involved many countries around the globe. The Panama papers' scandal has also led France, Israel, Austria, Australia, India, and the Netherlands to investigate on the case.
