‘A welfare state with a budget on the right side of zero’: Iceland’s youngest-ever prime minister has a plan for a new kind of governance

Kristrún Frostadóttir, who took office last month, has ended up with a coalition run entirely by women. Photograph: Sigga Ella/The Observer

Nearly 45 years ago, Iceland made history by producing the world’s first elected female president of a country, setting it on a path to being the global feminist frontrunner it is today.

Since then it has had multiple female presidents and prime ministers, but it wasn’t until three weeks ago, when social democrat Kristrún Frostadóttir took office, that the country’s two top positions were both held by women at the same time. It comes after Halla Tómasdóttir became Iceland’s second female president in August.