Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.12.2016, Blaðsíða 6

Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.12.2016, Blaðsíða 6
Inner Workings Figures Don't Lie The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 18 — 2016 6 When Iceland’s parliamentary elec- tions were held at the end of October, pretty much every prediction of the results turned out to be completely wrong. At time of writing, Iceland still has no ruling coalition, and all at- tempts to form one have fallen apart. In fact, there are two separate ruling coalition talks going on at the same time. By the time this goes to print— hell, maybe even by the time I finish writing this sentence—the situation will be entirely different again. Why this has happened involves an increased number of parliamentary parties, and a key decision made by President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson that exposes the flaws in our system. It used to be so simple. Headlines the world over assured everyone that the Pirate Party was going to sweep the elections; who they invited to the ruling coalition was just a minor de- tail. As we know, things didn’t turn out that way. By a strange confluence of the results, which saw seven differ- ent parties making their way into Par- liament, no two-party configuration can hold a majority. Iceland has gener- ally been allergic to coalitions of more than two parties. This created the first problem. The second problem is that form- ing coalitions always means develop- ing a joint platform. You’d be forgiven for thinking this might be easy, what with most of these parties identify- ing with one side or the other of the centrist spectrum. Surely centrists are flexible enough to work with just about anyone, right? Well, yes and no. That certainly used to be the case in Par- liament, but it hasn’t been since the financial collapse of 2008. During that time, the country was led by the right- wing Independence Party, with the partnership of the centre-left Social Democrats. And of course, let’s not for- get the reason we had early elections in the first place: the Panama Papers scandal this spring, which effectively torpedoed an already increasingly un- popular Progressive Party. As such, any parties invited to work with the Independence Party, who won the most votes this fall, have felt pres- sure to stick to their guns and compro- mise nothing. The right-wing Progres- sives, disgraced by the Panama Papers, aren’t even considered a possibility as a coalition makeweight. For better or worse, this has created a near-intrac- table situation. And that’s where the President comes in. After Guðni gave the mandate to start coalition talks to the chairs of two different parties—first the Indepen- dence Party, and then the Left Greens— both failed to form a coalition. He then announced that he would not be giving the mandate to anyone else. Instead, he recommended that all party chairs talk to one another and iron out their differ- ences. This clever move created a power vacuum of sorts. It’s why we now have two separate coalition talks going on at the same time. Everyone was given the mandate, in a sense, to make Iceland’s next government. Voices within the Pirate Party have been floating the idea of a minority government. Which is hilarious, con- sidering how unstable these govern- ments are, and how quickly parties would likely turn on each other. The idea of a þjóðstjórn, wherein there is neither a ruling coalition nor an op- position, has been largely dismissed as solely an emergency measure that would lead to democratic gridlock. Would it, though? It is arguably far more democratic to have all of Ice- land’s voters equally represented and taking part in the process of shaping society (typically, bills from the rul- ing coalition roll on through to become laws, whilst bills from the opposition die in committee). Legislation would take more time to pass. But since when is the aim of democracy efficiency? If you want efficiency, you go with au- thoritarianism. If you want the people to have direct control of their desti- nies, you go with democracy—however slow, messy and headache-inducing it can be. That’s the trade-off. In some ways, Iceland could serve as a political model for the rest of the world. We have all the tools at our dis- posal to create a directly democratic system of societal organisation. Yet we cling to obsolete and clearly deeply flawed methodologies for governance. If this election teaches us anything, it should be that trying to fit new ideas into an old system is like trying to fit a nitrous tank to a Ford Model T: you can probably find a way to do it, but the result is likely going to be disastrous. Share this article: GPV.IS/POL18 Words PAUL FONTAINE Illustration CHAS ROBINSON/ SCOOBY DON'T OPINION Iceland's Political Shitstorm 2016 A Reprise Iceland has the 2nd highest number of published titles per capita in Europe 2nd The average number of books an Icelander buys as christmas gifts. 2.1 The average number of books every Icelander reads each year. 10 70% of all books are published in the last three months of the year, or around Christmastime 70 % #northernlightsbus #bustraveliceland Availability: Every night Pickup starts: 20:30 *October 1.–15.: 21:30 Duration: 3–5 hours Price: 6.400 ISK Warm clothing required Refreshments included Book online for a 10% discount Promo code NLB16 www.bustravel.is info@bustravel.is +354 511 2600 Northern Lights Bus
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