In response to questions on whether he will call for the resignation of Independents MP Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, Chairman of the Independence Party Bjarni Benediktsson said an MP’s authority to sit in parliament is not granted from the party’s chairman, but rather from his voters.
Bjarni Benediktsson. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
In an interview with RÚV, Benediktsson agreed that the extensive funding which the MP had accepted during the primary before the parliamentary election in 2007 was inconvenient for the party. However, he will not pressure Thórdarson to step down from parliament.
Thórdarson revealed in a press release to the media on Friday that he had received a total of nearly ISK 25 million (USD 366,000, EUR 280,000 at the time) in contributions from companies before the 2007 primary, most of which were key players in the creation of the economic bubble and crash, and have since gone bankrupt.
Steinunn Valdís Óskarsdóttir, an MP for the Social Democrats, recently resigned from parliament after it was revealed that she had received ISK 13 million, approximately half the amount Thórdarson received, in funding from private companies.
Click here to read more about that story and here to read more about the funding Thórdarson accepted.
