Benedikte Thorsteinsson
Minister for Social Affairs and Labor of Greenland
In office
4 April 1995 – 19 September 1997
Personal details
Born (1950-02-12) 12 February 1950
Eqaluit, Greenland

Benedikte "Bendó" Sara Nanna Thorsteinsson Abelsdóttir (née Kristiansen; born 12 February 1950)[1] is a Greenlandic politician (Siumut).

Early life

Benedikte Thorsteinsson is the tenth of fifteen children of the sheep breeder Abraham Terkild Abel Kristiansen (1918-?) and his wife Hanne Malene Dorthea Lise Rosing (1914-?),[1] a sister of Nikolaj Rosing (1912-1976). She is the sister-in-law of the politician Ûssarĸak K'ujaukitsoĸ (1948-2018) and thus the aunt of Vittus Qujaukitsoq (* 1971). Another niece is Anna Wangenheim (born 1982). Her father was chairman of the sheep breeders' association he founded and was also active as a local politician.

Personal life and career

Thorsteinsson attended high school in Køge, Denmark,[2] which she graduated in 1970. There she met Icelander Guðmundur "Gujo" Þorsteinsson (* 1949), whom she married on 22 September 1971. The couple moved to Iceland that same year, where she trained as an office clerk.[1] She has four children with her husband.[3] In 1984 the family moved to Qaqortoq, where Benedikte was employed by the municipal administration. From 1985 to 1988 she was the municipal apartment manager. From 1988 to 1989 she was a course leader at Sulisartut Højskoliat and then a specialist teacher at the business school in Qaqortoq until 1995.[1] She worked as an advisor to the Icelandic consul in Greenland Pétur Ásgeirsson.[4]

Political career

From 1989 to 1995, Thorsteinsson was a member of the Qaqortoq Municipality Council, serving as Deputy Mayor. She stood as a candidate in the parliamentary elections in 1995, but failed to make it into parliament.[5] Nevertheless, she was subsequently appointed Minister for Social Affairs and Labor in the Johansen II Cabinet.[6] When Lars-Emil Johansen resigned as Prime Minister in 1997, Thorsteinsson was replaced by Mikael Petersen.[7][8]

Together with her husband, she received the Icelandic Order of the Falcon in 2019.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Torben Lodberg (1998). Grønlands Grønne Bog 1998. copenhagen: Grønlands hjemmestyres informationskontor. p. 122f. ISBN 9788789685083.
  2. ↑ "Kommende landsstyremedlem er også kommende mormor". Atuagagdliutit. 16 March 1995.
  3. ↑ "Flateyri fangaði hjarta mitt" (pdf). bb.is.
  4. 1 2 "Gujo og Bendó heiðruð: Hafa gegnt lykilhlutverki í samskiptum Íslands og Grænlands í hálfa öld". kalak.is.
  5. ↑ "Parlamentswahlergebnisse 1995". Atuagagdliutit. 7 March 1995.
  6. ↑ "Otto indkalder det nye Landsting". Atuagagdliutit. 14 March 1995.
  7. ↑ "Ud med Benedikte ind med Mikael". Atuagagdliutit. 18 September 1997.
  8. ↑ "Stigende kritik af socialdirektoratet". Atuagagdliutit. 7 October 1997.
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