"I've been very focused on these six years. It's been a special and fun journey. Three more years is quite a long time. Then you have to be motivated for that whole period and I feel like I want to do other things too," he told the newspaper.
In December last year, Arrhenius accused the government of being careless in its work on developing new legislation. He has opposed, among other things, lowering the age of criminal responsibility, tightening requirements for family immigration and visitation zones.
He told the Althingi that his decision to quit was not influenced by the criticism of the government.
Arrhenius took office as Discrimination Ombudsman in December 2020.
