Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2018, Side 16

Eyþór Arnalds
Background: Born in Reykjavík
in 1964, Eyþór didn’t always have
an eye on politics. In his very early
years, he had an abiding interest in
the cello, and was one of the found-
ing members of Tappi Tíkarass
and Todmobile. But his mind later
turned towards business, getting
his MBA from the University of
Reykjavík.
Eyþór has been involved in
numerous business ventures,
some of them very successful. This
includes co-founding the tele-
com Íslandssími hf. (later becom-
ing Vodafone) and Becromal in
Akureyri, and is now the director
of Strokkur Energy, a renewable
energy company.
Politics: Was a deputy Reykja-
vík city councilperson from 1998
to 2002, later leading the list for
the Independence Party in Árborg,
South Iceland, in 2006 and 2010,
becoming the chair of the town
council from 2010 to 2014.
The platform: Eyþór represents
the platform of the Independence
Party in Reykjavík. This means he
wants the city to build some 2,000
apartments on average per year,
including on Örfirisey, the very tip
of the peninsula in Grandi, west
Reykjavík - a site the Independence
Party has long wanted to develop
on. He seeks to improve the flow
of traffic in Reykjavík by making
the buses more timely, supporting
more sustainable forms of trans-
portation, and reducing “danger-
ous traffic lights” at intersections.
He wants to improve the wages of
playschool workers, to reduce air
pollution in the city, and to have
the streets cleaned regularly. But
his most controversial position by
far has been to promise to eliminate
real estate taxes on residents over
the age of 70—a measure that only
the national government can actu-
ally promise.
What are his chances? Not too
shabby, really. The Independence
Party has long been the second-
strongest force in Reykjavík politics,
and there’s been talk that the party
is overdue for a win. However, Eyþór
is still up against a popular incum-
bent mayor, and the polling shows
he has his work cut out for him.
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Face/Off:
The
Narrative
Revolves
Around
These
Two Men
The current
mayor and
the leading
challenger
have
dominated
headlines
W
Dagur B. Eggertsson
Background: Born in 1972 and
raised in the Reykjavík suburbs of
Árbær, his father was a veterinar-
ian and his mother a biochemist,
making it perhaps unsurprising
that Dagur would himself pursue
a career in medicine. He worked at
different divisions of Landspítali
hospital, the Ísafjörður health
centre and then the Department of
Microbiology at Landspítali before
becoming a doctor at the E.R. of that
very institution.
Politics: Dagur was first elected
to Reykjavík City Council in 2002
as an independent member of the
Reykjavík List. He was briefly mayor
in October 2007 before Ólafur F.
Magnússon of the Liberal Party
pulled the rug out from under him.
Undeterred, he continued to pursue
a career in city politics, leading the
Social Democrats when they formed
a coalition with the Best Party from
2010 to 2014. That year, he led the
Social Democrats again and won
the mayoral title.
The platform: Dagur represents
the platform of the Social Demo-
crats in Reykjavík. The sweet-
est plum in their platform is The
City Line (“Borgarlínan”), a public
transport system that essentially
treats buses like light rails: they run
more often, have their own lanes
for travelling, and the bus stops
themselves are better constructed.
Dagur has emphasised the building
of thousands of new apartments in
Reykjavík, some of them already
under construction. Social Demo-
crats, coming from a quasi-socialist
tradition, also place a lot of empha-
sis on human rights and gender
equality, but they also recognise the
importance of reducing air pollu-
tion. They believe increased public
transport and encouraging more
foot and bicycle traffic will help in
this regard.
What are his chances? Pretty
good, actually. Dagur has been a
popular mayor, he has a very famil-
iar face in city politics, and neither
he nor his party have been attached
to any political scandals on the city
level. However, as 16 parties in all
being in the running attests, people
are also looking for a change, so they
could very well cast their votes in a
way that reflects that.
16 parties, including numerous
immigrants and women, trans
folks, people of colour and the
disabled are running for Reykjavík
City Hall. Yet you could be forgiven
for not knowing this, given that
the headlines about the munici-
pal elections in Iceland’s capital
have revolved around two native-
born Icelandic men: current Mayor
Dagur B. Eggertsson and the Reyk-
javík Independence Party’s leading
candidate, Eyþór Laxdal Arnalds.
The emphasis is understand-
able, if simplifying: the Social
Democrats and the Indepen-
dence Party have been regularly
switching places as the leading
and second-place parties vying
for control of City Hall, and by
fairly wide margins over all other
parties. So maybe we should take
a better look at these contenders.