Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.04.2016, Page 20

President, and asked the head of state
to make it official. The President, how-
ever, refused, saying that he needed
to see a “strong level of support” from
both parties in the ruling coalition to
dissolve Parliament.
It turned out that the Prime Minis-
ter had, apparently, not even discussed
his plan with members of his own par-
ty. They then held an informal meet-
ing to discuss matters—without him.
Hours later, a story broke that swept
international headlines: the Prime
Minister was going to resign. True
to fashion, Sigmundur would end up
scuttling his own chances to exit with
dignity.
First, there was the fact that there
was not even to be a change of which
party would hold the Prime Minister's
office, let alone parliamentary disso-
lution and early elections—the coali-
tion would hold, with the Progressives
at the helm. Second, the Progressives
decided party vice chairperson and
Minister of Agriculture and Fisher-
ies Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson was to
be the new Prime Minister, with Sig-
mundur continuing on as Progressive
Party chairperson. If the Progressives
were deliberately trying to pick the
least suitable candidate for the job,
they succeeded. In the wake of the
Wintris news, Sigurður had been very
diligent about defending not just the
Prime Minister but also offshore ac-
counts themselves, telling reporters
that “it is complicated to have money
in Iceland.” A poll taken the month be-
fore on trust in different government
ministers showed that only 3% of re-
spondents had any confidence in the
man at all.
Understandably, the opposition
was far from assuaged by this move.
They said they were going to continue
to push for dissolution and early elec-
tions, and protests continued for a sec-
ond day. Later that evening, Sigmun-
dur would once again inadvertently
make matters much worse for himself
than they ever needed to be.
Richard Milne, a journalist for the
Financial Times in the Nordic and
Baltic countries, took to Twitter that
evening to post a screenshot of a press
release Sigmundur's office had sent
the international media. In this press
release, the office emphasised that
Sigurður would only be taking over
“for an unspecified amount of time,”
and that “The Prime Minister has not
resigned.”
When news of this reached Ice-
land, all hell broke loose, and the Pro-
gressive spin machine was fired up
once again. Sigmundur's assistant,
Jóhannes Þór Skúlason, told report-
ers that “an unspecified amount of
time” could very well mean until new
elections are held. Other MPs for the
Progressive Party attempted to pre-
tend that the whole thing was a big
misunderstanding; that he really was
leaving, kind of, or taking a break
anyway, maybe to return; that “The
Prime Minister has not resigned” was
an easy-to-misunderstand statement,
and it should nonetheless be clear that
Sigmundur is no longer Prime Minis-
ter. In a way.
As I write this, on Wednesday
morning, the opposition is still plan-
ning on pushing for dissolution and
early elections. The Icelandic people
are still planning on holding an-
other round of protests a few hours
from now. And all of this has distinct
shades of 2009, on which we would do
well to reflect in order to understand
what may happen next.
Learn from history_
We should remember why the govern-
ment fell apart seven years ago. Par-
liamentary protests were an almost
daily occurrence months in a row. The
Independence Party, which was lead-
ing the government with the Social
Democrats, was plummeting in sup-
port. The two parties met to discuss
the matter, with the Social Democrats
proposing that they switch who con-
trolled the Prime Minister's seat. The
Independence Party refused. As a re-
sult, the coalition broke. The President
was obliged to form an emergency op-
position coalition—comprised of the
Social Democrats, the Left-Greens and
the Progressives—until such time as
early elections could be held.
This is important to have in mind
as we follow how the Progressives and
the Independence Party deal not only
with this crisis, but with each other.
Since this story broke, they have been
speaking to each other primarily
through the media. Which is never a
good sign. The Independence Party
may be just as corrupt as the Progres-
sives, but they have some degree of po-
litical savviness. The same cannot be
said of the Progressives.
Numerous media sources around
the world have contacted the Grape-
vine over the past couple days to un-
derstand better why everyone is so
angry. I've been telling reporters that
the reason why the people want new
elections, now, is not just because the
Prime Minister might have broken
the law. It's not just because the Prime
Minister is a demonstrable hypocrite
who imposes economic policies on
the country that he doesn't even abide
himself. It's also because these past
72 hours have encapsulated every-
thing that is wrong with the political
system in Iceland itself—that a group
of wealthy people can insulate them-
selves from reality, ignore and dismiss
criticism, accuse their detractors of
making personal attacks, and still
somehow manage to cling to power, no
matter how universally despised they
are.
Things are still very uncertain in
Iceland, and the future of its govern-
ment even more so. The only thing
that is certain is that the Icelandic
people want this government gone,
and they want the chance to vote for a
new one, soon. But if the Panama Pa-
pers have demonstrated anything, it's
that the global political system is woe-
fully broken and corrupt. If we mean
to fix things here at home, we should
bear in mind that simply electing new
players is not going to be enough to
fix things. We need a new system al-
together. What form it would or could
take is up for debate, but one thing is
clear: changing the players does not
change the game. Whether or not the
rich and powerful will continue to get
away with the activities the Panama
Papers have revealed is up to us.
SHARE: gpv.is/unraveling

Feature Story:
The Panama
Papers & Iceland
The
Unraveling
Of A
Government
cont.
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Photo by HÖRÐUR SVEINSSON
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