Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.06.2003, Page 6

- the reykjavik grapevine -6 may 15 - may 29, 2003
A N A LY S I S
Last May 10th, the Icelandic national elections took
place with an impressive turnout of almost 90%,
considerably higher than in most countries (in the
last American presidential elections only 40%
voted) and probably some kind of record outside of
dodgy dictatorships. I’m not sure if this huge differ-
ence is because we’re all so interested in politics
and want to have something to say about our future,
or if its just the fun of putting an X on a piece of pa-
per and cadging free coffee.
In the weeks before, the parties
launched their campaigns in the
traditional way, with huge pictures
of smiling politicians on every
billboard over phrases like “vote
for freedom” or “vote for justice”,
and so on. Of course, nobody
cared and when the pictures of
our elected liars and thieves with
fake smiles were starting to get on
peoples nerves, the tone suddenly
changed and the parties tried a
different approach
After years of silence on the
matter, taxes suddenly became
the hottest campaign issue.
The right wing incumbent
Independence Party started the
pissing contest by promising 22
billion krónur worth of tax cuts.
Of course, the mildly left Alliance
Party quickly pointed out that most
of that money would go to the rich
and instead proposed a modest
16 billion tax cut benefiting the
poorest. The Progressive Party,
the junior government partner, at
the time facing political oblivion
according to the polls, joined the
game with their own 17 billion
pledge
Feeling some resentment from the
voters and with the growing gap
between rich and poor being a
sore spot, the Independence Party
raised their promise to 37 billion,
making sure that everybody
would benefit more from their
suggestion. Stunned by this,
none of the other parties dared to
outbid them.
The list of other campaign
promises ran long and included
reducing tariffs on food, higher
real estate loans and lower interest
rates. In fact, the Independence
Party was just an inch away
from promising to send everyone
bundles of cash in the mail though
in the end all they could manage
was coffee
A lot of people found it funny
that when elections were in the
air, there was suddenly plenty of
money to lower taxes by several
percent while at the same time
the police numbers were being
reduced to remain within an
ever tightening budget, and the
healthcare system was groaning
under the weight of severe
government cut backs
When the votes were cast and
counted, at first everybody
seemed to have won. After the
election night, the leaders of the
minority parties each went on
television to announce that their
party was the real winner of this
election. The leader of the Liberal
Party proudly announced that
his party doubled its number of
parliamentarians, jumping from 2
to 4, while The Alliance Party got
over thirty percent of the votes and
became the second largest party.
Even the leader of the Left Green
Party felt victorious because they
had lost less than expected.
At the same time, the leaders of
the incumbent coalition happily
announced that they would govern
this country for four more years.
They shed no tears over losing the
trust of the people and 7% of their
vote in the past four years. Thanks
to a surprisingly good performance
from their junior coalition partners,
the Progressives, they had the
numbers needed for a third term
and that, of course, is what
matters at the end of the day.
Personalitywise, the election
of 2003 saw the making and
breaking of two of Icelands´
premier political figures. Late
last year, Halldór Ásgrímsson,
the leader of the Progressive
Party, became a laughing stock
when he admitted that he had
the dream of becoming Prime
Minister. Being one of the least
popular politicians and frequently
parodied for never changing
his facial expression or tone of
voice, he was simply dismissed
as delusional. At this time the
Alliance Party came forward
with their candidate for Prime
Minister, the Mayor of Reykjavík,
Ingibjörg Sólrún. Very popular
and successful in leading the
city for 8 years, she now became
the leader of the opposition.
On the back of her heavyweight
personality, the Alliance soared to
undreamed of heights in the polls,
surpassing their bitter rivals in the
Independence Party for the first
time in history. Poor Halldór, on
the other hand, didn’t even look
like he would make it back into
parliament. But, as they say in
Westminster, even a week is a long
time in politics, never mind a few
months. The Alliance made that
classic and unfortunate mistake
of peaking too early and Halldor
made the most impressive return
from the dead since Lazarus
Now, no one is quite sure how it
happened, but on Election Day,
the Progressive Party got an
impressive 17% of the votes after
having gone as low as 8% in the
polls. Since the Independence
Party and the Alliance Party are
sworn enemies and the other
parties were too small, a new
government would again have to
include the Progressive Party, and
Halldór would get to choose who
went in with him.
The morning after the elections,
The Alliance Party, desperate
to form a new government,
offered Halldór his dream job as
Prime Minister. With that offer
in his pocket, he then went to
the Independence Party and
accepted their offer to continue
their coalition, with Halldór taking
over as Prime Minister from
David Oddsen within two years,
something no one would have
believed a few weeks before.
The man regarded by many as
the doormat of the government,
finally got his revenge. As for
Ingibjörg Sólrún, well, political fall
from grace does not come much
harder. Having quit her top job as
Mayor to run for Prime Minister,
becoming briefly the most popular
person in the country and the
darling of the left, the cold political
light of Sunday morning saw her
miss even election to Parliament
by a handful of votes.
Now, only a few weeks later with
the high political drama already a
fading memory, all the promises
are forgotten, the fake smiles
have been removed, and most
people can’t even remember who
got elected. Here’s to four more
years of blissful ignorance before
we all become experts on politics
again.
VOTE P FOR PROMISE
NEWS IN BRIEF
FILIPPA
GU
ÐM
U
N
DSDÓTTIR
BYarticle
The right wing incumbent Independence
Party started the pissing contest by
promising 22 billion krónur worth of tax
cuts.
Elections were held on the 10th
of May. The government parties
(the conservative Independence
Party and the centre right Progres-
sive Party) lost seven seats, but
still maintains its majority. Prime
Minister Davið Oddson, who has
held office since 1991, will keep
his job for the time being. The
“new” government´s first action
after taking office was to announce
a payraise for members of Parlia-
ment.
The United States government
wants to remove its remaining
fighter jets from Keflavik Naval
base, whereas the local government
wants them to stay on. Negotia-
tions are currently under way. The
first meeting between US Assistant
Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones
and Prime Minister Davið Oddsson
lasted only 30 minutes, as Davið
Oddson, upon being handed a let-
ter from President Bush stating that
the Defence Department no longer
wishes to retain fighters in Iceland,
claimed he had nothing further to
discuss with Ms. Jones.
Eimskip shipping company is
threatening to abandon its opera-
tions in Raufarhöfn. The town, cur-
rent population 284, is threatened
with desolation.
The recent good weather has
brought large numbers of drinkers
downtown. These, sadly, do not
always get along with one another.
On the night of 30th of May, scuf-
fles between American soldiers on
a night out and locals led to an Ice-
lander getting stabbed. Witnessess
report broken bottles and watches
wrapped around fists were also
used as weapons. The weekend
after, a man was slashed in the face
in the centre, but this time the inci-
dent was a case of locals quarelling
amongst themselves.
Somewhat more chilled out were
the inhabitants of a house raided by
the police. Police claim they found
79 cannabis plants hidden in a room
in the clothes closet, along with
lamps and other equipment used for
the growing of plants. 3 men were
arrested.
To the astonishment of the popu-
lation, Iceland yet again failed to win
the Eurovision song contest. This
was no doubt due to politics, as the
Icelandic song was by far the best
one. Yet another blow to the na-
tions prestige came when Icelands´
contestant in the Miss Universe
competition in Panama became ill
and had to cancel her participation.
This led to the country missing out
on certain victory, since Icelandic
women are, as everyone knows, the
most beautiful in the world. How-
ever, Iceland will no doubt regain
its rightful place among the worlds´
great nations at the Small
States Olympics currently
underway in Malta (whad-
dya mean you never
heard of the Small States
Olympics?!) In any case,
God is on our side, as is
evidenced by the fact that
the church choir of Lang-
holtskirkja won three gold
medals in a choir competi-
tion in Tampere, Finland.
Whether this has anything
to do with Icelandic wom-
en being voted the best in
bed by City magazine in Finland is
open to debate. The editorship is
currently trying to substantiate this
claim, so far without success due to
difficulties in carrying out the neces-
sary research.
Halldór Ásgrímsson, Foreign Minister, leader of the Progressive party, and
one of several people who claims to have won the elections.