Sigurður Ingi Jóhanns­son, Iceland’s mini­ster for infrastructure, has rel­e­a­sed a statem­ent on his per­sonal Facebook page, where he apologizes for a comment made by him about Vigdís Häsler, director of The Icelandic Farmers Association.

Sources have claimed that the mini­ster’s comment was of a racist nat­ure. He is said to have refer­red to Vigdís as „the black one“ at a function hosted last week. The function was part of a conference held by The Icelandic Farmers Association.

DV reported on the matter. In the article, the assistant of Sigurður Ingi, Ing­veldur Sæmunds­dóttir, denied that any such racist comment had been spo­ken by the mini­ster.  

„I am raised in the belief, and it is indeed my own life view, that everyone is equal,“ Sigurður Ingi says in his statem­ent. „Ther­efore, I have made sure to treat every per­son equally. But I make mis­ta­kes, just like other people. For that I am sorry. At a dinner, hosted by Framsókn for the repres­enta­ti­ves at Bún­að­ar­þing conference last Thursday even­ing, I said some unacceptable things about the director of The Icelandic Farmers Association. I deeply apologize for hav­ing said those things. In life, one is always learn­ing about ones­elf. However, it is sad if such per­sonal education winds up hurt­ing other people’s feelings.“

This article was orig­inally written in Icelandic by Gunn­hildur Kjerúlf Birg­is­dóttir.