Árni Johnsen (1 March 1944 – 6 June 2023) was an Icelandic journalist, politician, musician and athlete from

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyja ...

, who represented the Independence Party in the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

as a member of the

South Constituency South () is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established in 2003 following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland when the Southern constituency w ...

Early life

Árni was born in

to Poul C. Kanélas, an American soldier of Greek ancestry who was stationed in Iceland during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and Ingibjörg Á. Johnsen. In his youth, Árni competed in

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

. In 1965, he ran the 100 meter dash in a personal best 11.0 seconds.

Career

Árni was a journalist for

Morgunblaðið ''Morgunblaðið'' (, ''The Morning Paper'') is an Icelandic daily newspaper. ''Morgunblaðið''s website, mbl.is, is the most popular website in Iceland. It is currently the country's only daily printed newspaper and the newspaper of record. Hi ...

from 1967 to 1991 and also worked as a producer for

RÚV Ríkisútvarpið (, ; abbr. RÚV ) is Iceland's national public broadcasting, public-service broadcasting organization. Founded in 1930, it operates from studios in the country's capital, Reykjavík, as well as regional centres around the count ...

. Árni was first elected to

Alþingi The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what la ...

in 1983. He served as a debuty member of Alþingi from 1988 to 1991 and a full time member from 1991 until his resignation on 19 July 2001 after it was revealed he had used funds from the

National Theatre of Iceland The National Theatre of Iceland (NTI) (, pronounced ) in Reykjavík, is the national theatre of Iceland. The theater, designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, was formally opened on 20 April 1950. Since 2020, the artistic director of The National Thea ...

to purchase goods for his personal use. In 2002 he was convicted of paying for personal property using government accounts and sentenced to two years in prison. After his release, he was re-elected in 2007 and served until 2013. Outside of his journalist and political career, Árni wrote several interview books, collected jokes and verses from members of parliament and published them in several books. He wrote music, played his own songs and other people's songs on records and annually led singalongs at the festival Þjóðhátíð.

Death

Árni died at the Healthcare Institution of South Iceland in Vestmannaeyjar on 6 June 2023, at the age of 79.

References

External links

Non auto-biography of Árni Johnsen on the parliament website
1944 births 2023 deaths Members of the Althing Icelandic people of American descent {{Iceland-politician-stub