Atli Pætursson Dam (12 September 1932 – 7 February 2005) was a Faroese politician who served as
Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands
The prime minister of the Faroe Islands is the head of government of the Faroe Islands
The Faroese term (plural: ) literally means "lawman" and originally referred to the legal function of lawspeaker. This old title was brought back into use ...
on three occasions, most recently from 1991 to 1993. To this date, he is the longest-serving Prime Minister in Faroese history, having served a total of 16 years.
He was born in Tvøroyri in 1932 as the son of
Peter Mohr Dam and Sigrid Ragnhild, née Strøm. He was educated engineer in 1964 and worked for the Danish company ''
Haldor Topsøe'' until he became prime minister in 1970. He was vice president of the Faroese Mortgage Institution (Føroya Realkreditt) from 1981 to 1985, and again from 1989 until his death.
He was elected to the Løgting in 1970 and became Minister of Fisheries the same year, being appointed prime minister in the same year.
In addition, he was elected as
one of two Faroese members of the Danish Folketing from 1987 to 1988 and 1990 to 1994.
In the wake of the Faroese financial crisis, compounded by his health issues, Dam resigned as prime minister and head of the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
on 18 February 1993, and was succeeded by
Marita Petersen.
One of his biggest political achievements included his negotiations with the Danish Prime Minister
Poul Schlüter, which resulted in the Faroese underground and all natural resources thereof becoming property of the Faroese state; before that, it belonged to the Danish.
Information.dk, Våde, sorte drømme
/ref>
He was not re-elected for the Løgting at the 1994 elections.
References
*''Løgtingið 150 – Hátíðarrit'', vol. 2 (2002), page 265.
PDF
)
1932 births
2005 deaths
Prime Ministers of the Faroe Islands
Fisheries Ministers of the Faroe Islands
Social Democratic Party (Faroe Islands) politicians
Faroese members of the Folketing
People from Tvøroyri
Children of prime ministers
{{Faroes-politician-stub