Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.03.2016, Qupperneq 12

12
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 3 — 2016
Politics | Bright?Interview Running for President
What should the president of a coun-
try be? Ástþór Magnússon is a peace
activist, a politician, a businessman,
and an author. But above all these
things, he’s an idealist. He’s run for
President of Iceland three times previ-
ously, starting in 1996. He hasn’t won yet.
The Eurocard, Iceland’s first
credit card, was his gift (or curse) to
the Icelandic people, but he wants you
to give back. Not only by voting for
him, but also by believing in yourself
as a nation that can decide things for
itself. Can the champion of the people
become the people’s champion?
I called Ástþór and told him my
ignorance of history and my enthu-
siasm for hearing what he had to say.
How did this start? How did you
begin this nearly two-decade
quest for the Presidency?
In 1994, I founded the Peace 2000
Institute in Reykjavík. My co-
founders were around 1,000 people
from 100 organizations around the
world. Our opening meeting was in
Háskólabíó. One of the founders was
the former Prime Minister of Ice-
land. There were many people of the
United Nations. The aim of this or-
ganization is to come with new ideas
in world politics.
I wrote a book called ‘Virkjum
Bessastaði’. The main idea was that
the President of Iceland would be-
come an ambassador for peace—
spreading a new idealism based
on Iceland’s history of the Alþingi
and the meeting that took place at
Thingvellir in the year 1000. Þorgeir
Ljósvetningagoði averted a civil war
in Iceland there, dealing with a clash
between Ásatrú and Christianity,
by stating that people should be al-
lowed to practice other religions,
quietly. He came up with a compro-
mise that the people accepted and
avoided a civil war. This is the story
that I want the Icelandic President
to tell the world. I think this story
is as important for the people of earth
to hear as the story of Christ. We have
to have tolerance for all religions but
have to avoid them clashing. God is
like a mountain. It just depends where
you are looking at the mountain. You
will see different facades.
I said in 1996, “I will sponsor
anyone who will spread this mes-
sage, but if nobody picks it up, I will
run myself.”
In Iceland, it’s commonly seen as
rude to run against an incumbent
President. How has this affected
your mission?
It’s almost seen as a crime to run
against an incumbent President, but
it was different in 1996. SHE was
stepping down and there were five
of us running. I was too centrist.
There was [current President] Ólafur
Ragnar, a man of the left, and Pétur
Kr. Hafstein, a conservative candi-
date. People kept coming to my of-
fice and telling me they had to vote
for Olafur Ragnar to make sure the
conservative candidate didn’t win.
Since your initial run, you’ve been
running almost consistently and
consecutively. Why do you want
to be President?
It’s not about me being President.
Well, at least not as much as I want
the nation to use the Presidency as
an advocate for peace around the
world. In 1996, at the same time I
was running for President, I also
put forth an idea to start a Peace
University—studying new ways to
structure democracy. I pointed out
that Iceland is a small society. It’s an
ideal breeding ground for new ideas
and a great place to test them on a
small scale. We could test direct de-
mocracy here fairly easily.
I have also given the idea that our
bank machines, our ATMs, could
be used as voting machines. Every
so often you could vote on major is-
sues in a place that has security and
anonymity. It’s an idea that I think
would work.
But basically, I want the Presiden-
cy to be an advocate for peace and for
the environment.
If we are going to
have a home on
this planet, there
are two issues:
we have to live
in peace and we
need to take care
of the environ-
ment. We need to
change politics in
a way to enhance
this.
How can the President advocate
for peace? What does that mean
other than an empty gesture?
With the way we are going on in the
Middle East, we are feeding a snake
in the sand which will eventually
rise up against us. If you look at ISIS,
that is a snake rising up against us.
We have been spilling the blood of
innocent people in the Middle East
and for what? Profits of oil or what-
ever. This is not the way we need to
run this planet.
How can we be doing better for
the environment? What is the
President supposed to do?
We could do incentives, making it
more economical to do things in an
environmentally friendly way. This
could be done with taxes or other in-
centives. Also, we could be looking
into other energy sources.
A lot of your ideas line up with the
ideas of the Pirate Party…
The Pirate Party is saying many of
the things I said in 1996 and in my
book. We are both talking about di-
rect democracy. I think finally that
people are realising that more direct
democracy is a good thing, not a bad
thing. If you can trust the nation to
select their representatives, you can
trust the nation to know what to do
with the major issues.
The problem is: if it’s only left
to members of parties, a member of
parliament will lose his indepen-
dence to stay in line with his party. A
party can push agendas, sometimes
hidden agendas, that might not be in
the interest of the general public.
If the general public is making
decisions on major issues, doesn’t
that give the media significantly
more power?
You can form public opinion with
the media. We need to be very
strict and have declared legislation
around media. Every media should
have to put aside a certain amount of
air time for each candidate.
For twenty years I’ve been up
against this. In 1996, Ólafur had the
largest independent media organi-
zation supporting him. The manag-
ing director of that media company
was campaign director for Ólafur. In
a way, this is why in Iceland we have
a banana repub-
lic.
We’ve had edi-
torials in Ice-
land criticising
the presidential
election in Rus-
s i a — b e c a u s e
the candidates
didn’t have
access to the
media! It was
like throwing
stones in a glass house. That is ex-
actly what was happening to me.
From a media standpoint, espe-
cially in the visual culture we’re liv-
ing in, you seem like an easy target
for internet memes and jokes.
You seem to be characterized as
eccentric because you always
have your eyes bulging wide open
in a comical way.
Well, of course I have my eyes wide
open. I am the only one who can see
things clearly.
Incumbent President Ólafur Ragnar
Grímsson is stepping down after a record
five terms. Elections will be held on June 25.
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“I think this
story is as im-
portant for the
people of earth
to hear as the
story of Christ”
The All-Seeing
Eyes Of Ástþór
Magnússon
Iceland’s original pirate is
running for President, again
Ástþór Magnússon in Interview by YORK UNDERWOOD
ILLUSTRATION by ARNA BETH
@livinginiceland
@justinbatchelor
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