Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2005, Qupperneq 19

Siv Friðleifsdóttir:
Changing the Face of Icelandic Government?
Interview by Paul F. Nikolov
“I want to make it a law that ministers can’t be members of
parliament,” Siv Friðleifsdóttir tells me on the phone, and the
first thought that springs to mind is: sour grapes. She had been
Minister of the Environment from 1999 until just last year,
when she was unexpectedly asked to vacate her position. But
then: “I actually tried to introduce this bill some years ago, but it
died in committee. It wasn’t even close,” she says, laughing. So
much for the sour grapes theory. But that’s par for course when
it comes to Ms. Friðleifsdóttir: you never know what to expect.
Siv Friðleifsdóttir has been influential in the Progressive Party
since 1991, when she supported entry into the European
Economic Area (EEA). As Minister of the Environment she
was the voice behind what many see as the worst environmental
decision in the history of the country, the Kárahnjukar dam
project. But since losing her poaition, she was one of the first in
her party to say that the possibility of joining a US-led coalition
to invade Iraq was never brought up in the Foreign Affairs
Committee. She also introduced the smoking ban bill and has
been a strong advocate of free pre-school. Most of all, she has
been in many ways on the forefront of gender equality, once
famously comparing the Icelandic parliament to the new Iraqi
parliament: Iraq has more equal representation.
When I met her at Alþingi, she promptly offered me lunch. I
declined out of politeness and went into interview mode.
“The Progressives have had some divisive moments within their
party recently,” I said, “such as debate over the Iraq issue earlier
this year. What were some of your impressions of this struggle?”
She quickly changed the subject to the EU, claiming, “A lot of
young people have been in favour of joining the EU, but the
government has been against joining it.” Friðleifsdóttir has been
in favour of joining the EU, while the Progressive’s partner
in the coalition government, the Independence party, are
pronounced Euroskeptics.
I had been nursing a pet theory that the Progressives could
conceivably form a new coalition with the opposition (the
Social Democrats and the Leftist-Greens), so I asked, “The
Independence and the Progressive Parties have differed on a
number of matters. Is a rift forming between the two?”
On this point she was clear: the Progressive and the
Independence Parties aren’t splitting any time soon, but she
added, “Of course, we [the Progressives] could lose power if the
ruling party makes some mistakes, but I think that people deep
down trust this coalition.”
“Based on what?,” I asked.
“Based on the government’s good outcome in the Gallup. The
Gallup goes up and down, but it remains relatively stable.” [It
should be noted that the most recent Gallup poll put the ruling
coalition at a majority of barely 51%.]
We moved on to the Progressive Party’s good deed: Minister
of Industry (and Progressive) Valgerður Sverrisdóttir recently
said that Iceland cannot be dependent on aluminium and heavy
industry, a position that seemed to contradict government
policies as it runs polls in the north about opening an
aluminium plant in Eyjafjörður.
“Valgerður’s statement has been widely misinterpreted,”
Friðleifsdóttir told me. “She wasn’t saying we should abandon
heavy industry altogether; just that we shouldn’t put all our eggs
into one basket. Specifically, we’ve been focussing on the tourist
sector by trying to expand the Vatnajökull National Park. You
see, currently the boundaries are here . . . “ whereupon she
proceeded to draw a detailed map of where the Vatnajökull
National Park is, and where they would like it to be, explaining
that there are still some unsettled issues over land ownership in
some areas. “There are certain parts of the country where no one
knows who owns the land.”
Diagramming is something Ms. Friðleifsdóttir likes to do. Get
her started on any topic – from free pre-schools to Kárahnjúkar
– and she’ll launch into the subject with everything she has,
sketching the issue on paper, citing dates and sources. The sort
of thing a political junkie like me just eats up, in another words.
The diagrams almost had me mesmerized, but I had to drop
the rough question. As much as Friðleifsdóttir has reinvented
herself, she is famous to young voters for her role in pushing the
Kárahnjúkar dam when she was Minister of Environment.
When asked if she would have done anything differently in
retrospect, she said, “I’m pleased with how the project was
run and wouldn’t have done anything differently. It was a big
debate, and it was very clear that we had good support for this
among the people, as seen in the Gallup poll about it.”
[The Gallup poll results actually showed 53% supporting the
project, with 30% opposed and 17% undecided.]
But Friðleifsdóttir truly shines on women’s issues. When I
mentioned the Progressive campaign to close the wage gap
between men and women, and asked if women’s issues are
a recent platform of the Progressive Party, her response was
adamant: “It’s always been a very important issue with us. The
Progressives were the first to put forth a measure addressing
gender issues within the party and have led a campaign to
bring the percentage of women in parliament up to 40%, when
possible. There’s gender bias in many fields of Icelandic society.
Local government is comprised of only 30% women. In the
government, only 25% are women and within parliament, 30%.”
Trying to play devil’s advocate (i.e., doing my job), I asked if
this might not be because women are less interested in getting
involved in politics than men.
“This is absurd,” she retorted. “Women in this country have
been battling to get higher up for a long time now. There are
many reasons why their way has been blocked. We have been
living in a patriarchal society for decades. Who remembers
anything else? And of course no one wants to lose their seat
– the men who have them want to hang onto them, naturally.
It’s been a sensitive, difficult battle. The field of business has
been even more difficult – among the top 100 companies in
Iceland, only two have women as directors, and that’s very
recent. Everyone likes to talk about gender equality, but I
wonder how many men actually believe it in their hearts. It’s
easy to talk about, but their actions speak louder than words.”
Having taken up nearly her entire lunch hour, I concluded
the interview. The last time I met her, in the spring of 2004,
she had asked to take my picture at the interview’s end, which
she later posted on her website. This time, she asked for
Grapevine’s website address, which she linked on her site that
day.
“Am I going to see a copy of this interview?” she asked. It
is standard policy in Iceland to allow subjects to read over
interviews.
“If you want to,” I said.
She thought about it for a moment, then decided, “No, that’s
OK. I hate reading interviews with me.”