Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2012, Blaðsíða 20

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Racism has come back to life as
a political force in Northern Eu-
rope over the last few decades. On
April 22, Marine Le Pen received
18% of the vote in France's presi-
dential elections. As The Econo-
mist noted last year: “In an arc of
countries spreading north-east
from the Netherlands, populist par-
ties are cutting a swathe through
politics, appealing to electorates
with various blends of national-
ism, Euroscepticism and outright
xenophobia.” The strain of racism
now rampant is known as “cultural
racism,” which is not a belief in bio-
logical superiority, but a belief that
Europeans are culturally superior
to the other peoples of the world.
As the Breivik trial has made clear,
contemporary racist discourse fo-
cuses on “multiculturalism” and
“integration,” and is decidedly anti-
immigration.
THE SPECTRE OF THE FAR RIGHT
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, there
was concern that an Icelandic far
right would emerge. Rock star Bubbi
Morthens released a song in 2001
called “Nýbúinn” (“The Immigrant”),
criticising the racism he perceived in
Icelandic society. A translation of the
chorus goes: “I hear whispered: Ice-
land for Icelanders.” Bubbi Morthens
was not the only one concerned. It was
considered highly probable that a far-
right, xenophobic party would emerge
in Iceland.
The reasoning was simple: in other
European countries the far right had
risen to prominence and there was no
particular reason to think that Iceland
would be any different. The two coun-
tries that Iceland has the closest cultur-
al links to, Denmark and Norway, have
both had far-right parties in parliament
since the 1970s and ’80s, respectively.
Similar developments in Iceland were
closely watched: When two young men
founded the anti-immigrant Flokkur
framfarasinna (“Party of Progressives”)
in 2001, its leader, Hjörtur J. Guð-
mundsson, was interviewed on Silfur
Egils, Iceland's foremost political talk
show. The party never got so far as to
run for office and never existed beyond
the hopes of its two young founders.
xENOPHOBIC ORGANISATIONS
In 2004, the US State Department re-
leased a report that expressed con-
cerns over increasing racist sentiments
in Iceland. In response, the newspaper
Fréttablaðið surveyed xenophobic or-
ganisations in Iceland and found four.
Three of them were too far out on the
fringes to have any kind of political le-
gitimacy: the existence of one could not
be fully confirmed by the newspaper,
the operations of another were limited
to publishing a newsletter sporadically,
and the third's single noteworthy ac-
complishment was that its vice chair
had been convicted of using racist lan-
guage beyond the bounds of decency
in a newspaper interview. The fourth
organisation, Framfarafélagið (“The
Progress Association”), presented it-
self as more legitimate and Fréttablaðið
interviewed its founder and leader at
length.
If the organisation's name sounds
familiar, it is because it was led by the
same man who tried to get Flokkur
framfarasinna off the ground: Hjörtur
J. Guðmundsson. In that interview he
used the familiar language of cultural
racism, railing against multiculturalism
and integration and defending his pro-
motion of news reports that cast immi-
grants in a negative light by saying: “If
it is racism to collect news reports then
surely the media is guilty of racism.” Af-
ter a short stint in Frjálslyndi flokkurinn
(“The Liberal Party”), he joined Sjálf-
stæðisflokkurinn (“The Independence
Party”), the large right-wing party that
led the government from 1991–2009.
THE FAR RIGHT VANISHING ACT
Frjálslyndi flokkurinn is the closest
thing Iceland has had to a European
style far right party. It was founded in
1998 and its principal cause was reform
of the Icelandic fishing quota system.
It gained enough support on the back
of that to have, by 2003, four seats in
parliament. In the mid-2000s, however,
some of its MPs began to agitate for
limits on immigration. In their political
platform for the 2007 parliamentary
elections, Frjálslyndi flokkurinn had a
section on “immigrant issues” and ar-
gued that immigration should be lim-
ited and that “the authorities should
at all times control who and how many
immigrants enter the country.” In their
platform they also claimed that “noth-
ing had happened on this issue before
Frjálslyndi flokkurinn started a discus-
sion about immigration issues.”
If Frjálslyndi flokkurinn hoped that
being anti-immigration would bring
them more support, those hopes
proved unfounded. The party got slight-
ly fewer votes in the 2007 election than
they did in 2003, though they kept their
four seats in parliament. However, the
latter half of the 2000s was a turbulent
time for the party. Two MPs left to join
Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn and the daughter
of the party's founder resigned from
it after losing an election for the vice
chairmanship. In the 2009 election, the
party was wiped out. Today no party
in parliament is expressively anti-im-
migration, and though there are xeno-
phobic microparties such as Bjartsýnis-
flokkurinn ("The Optimism Party") and
Hægri-grænir ("Right-Green"), they
seem about as likely to receive enough
votes to get MPs as Flokkur framfar-
asinna did.
THE BLACK HOLE ON THE
ICELANDIC RIGHT WING
The story of Hjörtur J. Guðmunds-
son, founder of Flokkur framfarasinna,
helps explain why it is that Iceland is
a Northern European exception when
it comes to far right representation in
parliament. He ended up in Sjálfstæð-
isflokkurinn and his opinions, while still
right-wing, have become more main-
stream and he has never held political
office. In Iceland, people with far right
views have ended up in Sjálfstæðisflok-
kurinn. For instance, Jón Magnússon,
one of the two MPs who left Frjálslyndi
flokkurinn to join Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn,
lost his seat in parliament after the
2009 election and has little influence.
He has continued to advocate anti-im-
migration policies, but now as a blog-
ger rather than as an MP.
In Icelandic right-wing politics,
Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn is like a black
hole that draws in people with far-right
beliefs. Its size and long history of po-
litical power have been too tempting for
the ideologues of the far right to ignore.
Within this larger party they have been
marginalised and have never achieved
much sway or power. That is not to say
that xenophobia and racism are not
problems in Iceland, but it does sug-
gest that the particulars of the Icelandic
political landscape have made it harder
for far right political parties to take root
here than in other European countries.
20
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2012
Iceland | Politics
What Became Of The Far Right in Iceland?
“That is not to say that xenophobia and racism are
not problems in Iceland, but it does suggest that the
particulars of the Icelandic political landscape have
made it harder for far right political parties to take
root here than in other European countries.”
Words
Kári Túlinius
Illustration
Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
The far right has been in the news a lot lately in Europe. But not
in Iceland. Why is that?
Are you a far right group in need of some publicity? Do
you have plans of 'bringing back the glory of Iceland' that
you want to share with everyone? Why?