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He’s been taking a lot of criticism lately at home, but Icelandic president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is now the longest serving democratically-elected leader in Europe. He takes this title after the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced his resignation due to scandals in his administration.
Ólafur Ragnar is currently 70 years old and in his fifth term as president, having served since 1996.
Ólafur setið lengst allra
Ólafur has ruled longest of all
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson verður nú sá lýðræðislega kjörni þjóðarleiðtogi sem lengst hefur setið í Evrópu.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has now become the longest serving democratically-elected leader in Europe.
Other than meaning to sit, að setja can mean to rule, hold office.
The adjective kjörinn (elected) originates from the past participle of að kjósa, to choose, elect.
Ástæðan er sú að forsætisráðherra Lúxemborgar, Jean-Claude Juncker, hefur tilkynnt afsögn sína. Þetta gerir hann vegna hneykslismáls tengdu leynuþjónustu ríkisins sem sökuð hefur verið um ýmis misferli.
The reason is that the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, has announced his resignation. He did this due to scandals related to the government spy agency, which has been accused of various misconducts.
Reyndar má deila um hvort leiðtogi Hvíta-Rússlands, Alexander Lukashenko, skáki forseta Íslands. Hann hefur setið í tæp 19 ár en umdeilt er hvort síðustu forsetakosningar þar í landi voru lýðræðislegar þar sem aðrir frambjóðendur voru lamdir og fangelsaðir.
One might argue whether the leader of Byelorussia, Alexander Lukashenko, doesn’t beat the president of Iceland. He has ruled almost 19 years but it is disputed whether the presidential election there was democratic, as other candidates were beaten and imprisoned.
I’m not sure how to translate skáki here – normally að skáka means to check, as in chess, but here it’s being used to indicate that Lukashenko’s term somehow trumps/beats/takes precedence over Ólafur Ragnar’s.
Beating and imprisoning – somehow these verbs go together.
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Juncker hafði setið í rúm 18 ár, en Ólafur Ragnar nú í tæp 17. Hann situr nú í 20. sæti heimslistans.
Juncker has ruled for over 18 years, and Ólafur Ragnar just under 17. He is now in 20th place in the world list.
I think they must be talking about the overall list of longest serving leaders, not just current ones, and he’s 20th in that regard.
lýðræðis·legur adj democratic leið·togi (m) leader afsögn (f) resignation á·stæða (f) reason, cause hneyksli (n) scandal mis·ferli (n) misconduct um·deildur adj controversial, disputed lemja v (acc) hit, strike, beat fangelsa v (acc) imprison