Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.11.2013, Blaðsíða 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 1 — 2011 8Issue 17 — 2013
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Does that mean he's got a shoulder
cannon and can go invisible?
No, but that is how he described him-
self in an interview shortly after his
2010 electoral victory. While the Pred-
ator never ran for political office, Jón
Gnarr did come out of nowhere to tri-
umph against seasoned political war-
riors. Prior to his political career, he
was famous as a stand-up comic, ra-
dio comedian and actor. He founded
his political party, Besti flokkurinn,
or The Best Party, pretty much as a
joke, but then harnessed the anger
that many people felt towards politi-
cians after the financial collapse and
rode that anger to victory.
And behold an angry horse, and he
that sat on him had a shoulder cannon
and could go invisible at will.
His party formed a coalition with one
of the established parties, Samfylkin-
gin, The Social Democratic Alliance,
so he did not operate completely on
his own like an alien hunter from
outer space. But there were times
when Jón Gnarr probably wished he
could go invisible or shoot people
with a shoulder cannon. The part of
the political world that did treat him
like a beast out of the Book of Rev-
elations was the right-wing Indepen-
dence Party.
Did they dress his likeness up in drag
and call it the Whore of Babylon?
No, but he himself made it a yearly
tradition to dress in drag and speak at
Gay Pride. It will be interesting to see
if future mayors continue that tradi-
tion. And while it would not surprise
me if the more extreme activists in
the Independence Party referred to
him as the Whore of Babylon, they
never have done so in public. They
have, however, shouted rude words at
him in public.
That doesn't sound terribly extreme.
That happens to politicians all over the
world.
That is true, but it is pretty unheard
of in Iceland, especially in the context
of the most famous incident, which
took place at a neighbourhood meet-
ing. In Reykjavík, these meetings
are traditionally about as raucous as
a dentist's waiting room and cause
about the same level of excitement
as a yearly prostate exam. The chair
of the local Independence Party as-
sociation used that as a platform to
say some quite nasty things to Jón
Gnarr's face.
How did Jón Gnarr and his party
manage to gain control in the city and
anger their opponents so thoroughly?
The short answer is instability. Since
the financial crash public opinion
has swung behind one politician af-
ter another, only for that politician to
lose favour almost immediately after
being embraced. The long answer
is also instability. From the end of
World War II until the Cold War sput-
tered to a close, there was a fairly sta-
ble system of four parties, the largest
being the Independence Party. The
other three were Framsóknarflok-
kurinn, the Progressive Party, a party
of farmers and cooperatives; Alþýðu-
flokkurinn, Social Democrats; and
Alþýðubandalagið, Communists.
Things have changed a lot now. The
Progressive Party still exists, but has
travelled far from its agrarian roots.
The Social Democrats, the Commu-
nists and two other parties joined
together to found Samfylkingin in
1998, but then the Left-Greens start-
ed up as a more left-wing alternative
in 1999.
Wait, hold on... you said that there was
a four party system, but then how did
four different parties join up to found
Samfylkingin?
The four party system was never very
rigid, many other short lived parties
flamed across the political firma-
ment. This became even more pro-
nounced as the firm lines of cold war
politics started to crack. The feminist
Women's List had representation
in parliament from 1983 until 1999,
when it joined Samfylkingin. The list
of other shorter lived parties is long
and too boring to get into.
When things are boring, it's easy for a
funny guy to get attention.
And when ideological lines are mud-
dled and people are angry, it is easy
for a smart, charismatic politician
to be embraced by the public. Fortu-
nately for all, Jón Gnarr turned out
to be a pretty decent administrator
whose thirst for power was limited
enough that he decided to step down
after one term in office. And I sup-
pose we citizens of Reykjavík can also
be happy that a charismatic politician
who attained executive power during
times of financial turmoil and politi-
cal disillusionment did not turn the
city into a private hunting reserve to
shoot us with his shoulder cannon,
like Thatcher did.
The boring answer is that he is the mayor of
Reykjavík. He has been in the news lately be-
cause he announced that he was not seeking
re-election in next spring's municipal elections.
The more exciting answer is that he is a Preda-
tor-style alien who descended upon planet Ice-
landic Politics and wreaked havoc.
— Kári Tulinius
So Who's This Jón Gnarr
I Keep Hearing About?
The Reykjavík Grapevine
inadvertently overpaid. And in the
West Fjords village of Bolungarvík,
20 Polish factory employees
have accused their foreman of
charging them 1000 Euros for the
privilege of working there.
News like this might make you lose
a little faith, and so seems to be the
case for many Icelanders. Recent data
collected by Statistics Iceland shows
that about 10,000 Icelanders have
de-registered from the Evangeli-
cal Lutheran Church of Iceland in
the last three years. As a further
sign of distances possibly growing
between Iceland’s church and state,
the Reykjavík City Council may
propose that parliament recon-
sider the government’s “anach-
ronistic” Christian Fund, which
requires that municipalities provide
free land for the building of Christian
churches. An adjustment to this law
would likely be welcomed by most, as
71% of Icelanders reported that
they do not approve free plots of
government land being provided
for houses of worship.
But before you worry that we’ve gone
fully heathen up here, don’t forget
Iceland’s most recent viral sensation:
the vocal group Árstíðir (Sea-
sons) recently gave an impromptu
acapella performance of the
hymn “Heyr himna smiður” (‘Lis-
ten, Heavenly Creator’) in a train
station in Wuppertal, Germany.
The video has gotten over 849,704
views on YouTube as of this writing.
Keep your chins up out there!
NEWS IN BRIEF
OCTOBER
Continued...
Hörður Sveinsson
Iceland | For Dummies