Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.03.2012, Blaðsíða 6

Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.03.2012, Blaðsíða 6
6 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 3 — 2012 News | Roundup News In Brief: February Edition MONSTER HUNTING! February started out with some paranormal activity, when a farmer in northeast Iceland recorded a video of something moving in a snake-like motion across the river Jökulsá í Fljótsdal. It so happens that the lake fed by this river is Lagarfljót, and it also just so happens that this lake is the mythical home of the Worm of Lagarfljót. Sightings of this creature have been made since the four- teenth century, but this marked the first time that maybe, just maybe, someone had visual proof of its existence. The video be- came an internet sensation of sorts, prov- ing especially popular in Japan. Naturally, some were suspicious, but the farmer who recorded it, Hjörtur Kjerúlf, denied hav- ing staged the recording in any way. Later study of the video revealed that what was probably moving across the river was a chunk of twisted fishing netting covered in ice. And so the Worm of Lagarfljót remains an elusive creature, for the time being. OFFENSIvE BOOzE GETS THE BOOT The State Alcohol and Tobacco Company of Iceland (ÁTVR) decided not to allow the sale of Motörhead shiraz, reasoning that the band’s songs promote unsafe sex, drug abuse and violence. Hjörleifur Árnason, who wanted to import the wine, was baf- fled by the decision, pointing out that there is a beer for sale in Iceland called “Surtur” which, while also the name of an old Norse god, also happens to be a very offensive (albeit outdated) term for a person of Afri- can descent. Later on in the month, ÁTVR made the decision not to allow the sale of the beer Black Death, this time reasoning that the phrase, “Drink in peace,” written on the label, violates what stipulations about what kind of information is allowed to be printed on a bottle of alcohol. SUpREME COURT UpHOLDS INSIDER TRADING SENTENCE Arguably the best news this month, if not the best news since the financial col- lapse, occurred when Iceland’s Supreme Court upheld a two-year prison sentence against former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance Baldur Guðlaugsson. Baldur had a significant amount of shares in Landsbanki before the 2008 crash, and also sat in on meetings where he was privy to knowledge not available to the general public. On September 17 and 18, he sold his shares in Landsbanki for 192 million ISK. Shortly thereafter, Landsbanki crashed. Baldur was charged with insider trading, and convicted in Reykjavík’s Dis- trict Court last April. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld his sen- tence. This marks the first time in Icelandic history that someone has ever been con- victed of insider trading. HOMOpHOBIC SCHOOLTEACHER ON pAID LEAvE Primary school teacher Snorri Óskarsson was put on six months paid leave after his blog, which rails against homosexual- ity, was discovered. Although Snorri con- tended he was merely exercising his right to free speech, school officials pointed out that, as a number of his students likely were homosexuals, his blog effectively violated the ethical guidelines laid out for teachers to treat all their students equally. Psychologist Pétur Maack decided to take the matter a step further and press charg- es against Snorri, citing Article 233 of the Icelandic Penal Code, the “hate speech” section, which expressly forbids the type of speech Snorri used against homosexuals. FINANCIAL SURvEILLANCE AUTHOR- ITY DIRECTOR SACKED Gunnar Andersen, who had been direc- tor of the Financial Surveillance Authority (FME) since 2009, was much to his dismay, relieved of his duties last month. The deci- sion stems from it coming to light that in 2001, when the FME asked Landsbanki for information about its holdings, Gunnar— who was an executive at Landsbanki at the time—had failed to mention two Guernsey- registered companies that, while owned by holding companies, were fully owned by Landsbanki. Gunnar left Landsbanki in 2008. The FME believed this hurt Gunnar’s credibility as an FME director, so they de- cided to let him go. Gunnar told DV that the FME never listened to any objections in his defence, and that his sacking had been a foregone conclusion. Unnur Gunnarsdót- tir, who is the chief legal expert at FME, is temporarily filling the director position until a new replacement is found. Continues over Egill Helgason is a journalist, political commentator, blogger and the host of Iceland's only literary TV show, as well as Iceland's premiere political talk show. How he has time to write articles for us, we do not know. But he does. president Ólafur Ragnar Gríms- son has decided—after insinuating in his New Year's Address that he would not run and then dodging the question for two months—that he will in fact seek re-election this summer. There are no limitations on how long a president can stay in office. Thus, we’ve only had five presidents in the 68 year history of the republic: Sveinn Björnsson for the first six years, Ásgeir Ásgeirsson for sixteen years, Kristján Eldjárn for twelve years, Vigdís Finnbo- gadóttir for sixteen years and now Óla- fur Ragnar Grímsson for sixteen years. QUASI-REGAL pRESIDENCY Until now, limiting the number of presi- dential terms in Iceland didn’t seem necessary. The president has tradition- ally been a figurehead—a ceremonial person, a host for dignitaries, a giver of rather empty speeches on Icelandic nationality. The presidency has been quasi- regal in the sense that it has been considered bad form to run against a sitting president. Thus a real challenge has never been mounted against an in- cumbent in the history of the republic, and presidents have been able to sit as long as they pleased. There have been elections, but those who have dared to oppose our presidents have always been far from the mainstream in poli- tics—some of them have actually been considered quite mad. NO RIGHT WING pRESIDENTS It is noteworthy that presidents have invariably been chosen from opponents of the right wing Independence Party, which has otherwise dominated Ice- land's political history. In 1968, Kristján Eldjárn—an archaeologist, curator at the National Museum, and the son of a farmer in the far north—won a landslide victory against Gunnar Thoroddsen—a scion of the Reykjavík bourgeoisie, the former mayor of Reykjavík and Minis- ter of Finance. Many believed that they were really socking it to the ruling class. At this time the major question was whether the candidates had been for or against the US Naval Air Station in Keflavík—the defining rift in politics for decades. However, candidates did not discuss this because it was considered bad form for presidents to raise real po- litical issues. The process repeated itself in 1980 when a left-leaning theatre director, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, was elected president. She had also, at one point, been an opponent of the US Naval Sta- tion. Whereas Kristján Eldjárn had been rather shy as president and mostly concerned with the country’s cultural heritage, Vigdís became very popular as a symbol for the fast emerging wom- en’s movement. As was the rule of the game, both of them became completely apolitical upon entering office. Both enjoyed very high approval ratings and were seen as symbols of national unity. ENTER ÓLAFUR RAGNAR Enter an altogether different species: Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. Whereas Kristján Eldjárn and Vigdís Finnboga- dóttir were people of culture and learn- ing, Ólafur Ragnar could be described as a political adventurer. Easily the most ambitious young politician of his generation, he started out in The Pro- gressive Party, a rural centrist party, which had long been the second most powerful political force in Iceland. Óla- fur became a leader of the leftist frac- tion of the party. It was closely linked to The Co-operative Movement, which had abandoned its roots and become a business conglomerate with many interests, not least of all the lucrative and corrupt trade with the US military. Eventually Ólafur and his followers were kicked out of the party. For a while he seemed to have no place to go in politics. He dabbled in ra- dio and television—his broadcasts were aggressively critical, which was a nov- elty at the time. The government con- trolled the airwaves and he was soon banned from broadcasting. He was also one of the first political scientists in the country and, despite his impertinence, became professor at the University of Iceland. ÓLAFUR RAGNAR JOINS THE SOCIALISTS In the mid ‘70s Ólafur Ragnar joined The People’s Alliance, a socialist party, which could trace its roots back to the now defunct Communist Party of Ice- land. Ólafur Ragnar was surely no Com- munist, and maybe not even a Socialist, and much of the old guard loathed him for being an opportunist. However, with the support of young people, he man- aged to become leader of the party and Minister of Finance in a left wing gov- ernment that was in power from 1988 to 1991. There he earned the moniker “Skattmann” (meaning “Taxman”), and was feared for his sharp intelligence and ruthlessness. AND EMERGES AS A pRESIDEN- TIAL CANDIDATE In 1996, a new version of Ólafur Ragnar emerged. He was running for presi- dent and the nation saw a milder, more humble character. Many of his old op- ponents, both from the right and from within his own party, were dismayed. What playacting is this, they asked? But Ólafur Ragnar managed to win the elections with 40 percent of the vote, again beating a candidate fielded by The Independence Party. Even if Ólafur Ragnar still got on the nerves of his old foes, especially the conservative newspaper Morgunblaðið and then Prime Minister Davíð Odds- son—who made a point of leaving him out of official functions—he was soon accepted as president. His approval ratings were high. He travelled a lot, and he seemed to be in his element among foreign dignitaries. His hair whitened and he became more distin- guished looking. It also helped that he was married to elegant women, first to Guðrún Katrín Þorbergsdóttir, who had no little part in getting him elected in the first place, and then, after her death, to Doritt Moussaief, an extremely lively heiress and socialite from Israel. Ólafur was also the first president to embrace the emerging tabloid press. Unlike the former more reticent presi- dents, he was always in the eye of the media—he seemed like a new kind of man for new times. ÓLAFUR RAGNAR BEFRIENDS THE BANKSTERS The Icelandic economic boom, which ended with the crash in 2008, started in the late 1990s. Here Ólafur found natural allies in the financiers and busi- nessmen, who became welcome guests at Bessastaðir. He flew in their jets and hung medals on their jackets. One might even claim that Ólafur Ragnar became their chief ideologue: he for- mulated their ideas of world conquest and a specifically Icelandic way of do- ing business. Many of Ólafur Ragnar’s utterances from this time are cringe worthy—he spoke of the Icelandic "business-Vikings" as a special, almost chosen breed of people. When it turned out that the Icelandic boom had been a debt fuelled speculative bubble—mixed with a certain degree of fraud—most people thought that Ólafur Ragnar was finished. After the crash Ólafur was mocked in a way no Icelandic president has ever been mocked. In a popular New Year´s comedy show on television, Bessas- taðir was portrayed as a den of cocaine snorting scoundrels. All the sanctimony of his office had been stripped. THE GREAT COMEBACK But never to be underestimated Ólafur Ragnar came back with a vengeance. Early in 2010 he refused to sign a law stipulating how much Iceland should pay back to the UK and Holland for the so-called Icesave saving accounts. The law was then put to a general ref- erendum and the people voted against it. Ólafur Ragnar was victorious in the eyes of many who felt that he had saved the nation from debt and disgrace. This repeated itself in early 2011 when a second Icesave bill was also vetoed by him and voted down by the people. Thus the government seemed weak and willing to give in, whereas Ólafur Ragnar was defiant. He did interviews with media outlets from all over the world—seemingly totally in his element on CNN, BBC and al Jazeera—and for the first time, an Icelandic president was not just echoing the standpoints of the government. A NEW SET OF SUppORTERS Ólafur’s supporters were originally mostly from the left, but now the leftists stayed with the government, nominally the most left wing in Icelandic history: a coalition between The Social Demo- crats and Left Greens. So Ólafur had suddenly become a darling of the right—well, not everyone loved him, but they liked the way he stood up to the government of Jóhan- na Sigurðardóttir, leader of the Social Democrats, and Steingrímur J. Sigfús- son, leader of the Left Greens. Jóhan- na and Steingrímur were horrified by Ólafur's conduct—they are not really on speaking terms with him anymore. Ironically they both sat in government with him from 1988–1991. A CHANGED pRESIDENCY While Ólafur has decided to run in the upcoming election, some more inter- esting questions remain. Ólafur Ragnar has dramatically changed the nature of the presidency. He is the first to use the presidential veto, a power that has al- ways been in the Constitution, but was considered outmoded. Ólafur Ragnar, the political scientist, has not been un- constitutional; he just started using the powers that were written into the Con- stitution. In fact, it could be argued that the president has even greater powers than Ólafur Ragnar has used—the pres- ident is allowed to present bills to the Words Egill Helgason Illustration Inga María Brynjarsdóttir Iceland | Analysis THE LONG pOLITICAL JOURNEY OF ÓLAFUR RAGNAR GRÍMSSON Continues on page 23 “It also helped that he was married to elegant women, first to Guðrún Katrín Þorbergs- dóttir, who had no little part in getting him elected in the first place, and then, after her death, to Doritt Moussaief, an extremely lively heiress and socialite from Israel.”

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