Reykjavík Grapevine - 18.05.2018, Blaðsíða 21

1. It is important to me that Reykjavík
City as a public institution sets up good
standards for how immigrants are
employed.
2. Immigrants compose a growing
part of Icelandic society. Not all of them
have Icelandic citizenship to allow
them to vote in national elections, but
many have been here long enough to
take part in elections to City Council. If
we want to make any changes, we need
first to communicate our needs. We
need to take part in the discussion and
make decisions that concern our situa-
tion in this city.
3. Clearly, it is the housing market
but also labour market. There are
different ways how migrants get to the
country and different arrangements
how they are employed. Taking an
already tight housing market, it might
be additionally difficult for migrants to
find a place to stay since they are often
on low wages. For
someone who
is just coming
to Iceland, it is
difficult to have
money to pay for
example for three
months ahead
as is commonly
required. Thus, it
makes them rely-
ing on the hous-
ing provided by
the companies
which are not
always fair or
best.
Kurt Alan Van
Meter, Socialist
Party, 26th seat.
1. I hope that my candidacy will give the
Socialist Party the benefit of my experi-
ence as a foreigner living and working
for many years in Iceland. I also hope
that my views and the ability to address
my concerns head-on as a straight-
talker will be useful to the party.
2. I think it is very important for
foreigners to take part in politics wher-
ever they are able, as they often tend to
be underrepresented and face a lot of
backlash in society. We need to stand
up against that backlash and take part
in running our new country of choice.
Another party (Independence Party)
just recently actively tried to silence
the foreigner vote in this election by
telling some foreigners they may not
vote when they may, which is all the
more reason for foreigners to use their
actual rights in order to get involved
and vote out parties that actively work
against us.
3. I would say that currently, the
biggest challenge is the cost of living,
particularly in the last few years with
conglomerates buying up much of the
housing and using it for AirBnB or
simple price-gouging. Aside from that,
I think that access to information and
assistance in learning the language
and adjusting to life is lacking here
as Iceland is still adapting to having
foreign residents in any number.
Phiangphit
Thiphakdi, Capital
City List, 16th seat.
1. I hope I can improve city services,
and to see Reykjavík clean like it was in
the past, and ranked the most livable
city in the world.
2. To get a wide variety of opinions.
3. First the language and high cost
of living.
21The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2018
Municipal elections are a great
opportunity for immigrants to
participate more in the democratic
process. You don’t need to be a citi-
zen to vote, and you, therefore, don’t
need to be a citizen to run. While a
great many of the most important
legislation pertaining to immigrant
rights are handled on the national
level, a lot of the city-level issues that
hit Icelanders hard hit immigrants
even harder.
Take, for example, housing. This
is a huge subject in Reykjavík right
now, as many Icelanders are feel-
ing the pinch in a lack of affordable
places to live. This applies to every-
one. However, immigrants are a lot
more likely to rent, rather than buy,
a property, and the rental market
right now is prohibitively expensive.
We must also remember that refu-
gees and asylum seekers also receive
a great many services from their
municipalities, and there is a dire
need for great improvement in this
area.
Clearly, things need to change.
This is why it’s encouraging to see so
many immigrants running for Reyk-
javík City Council. Even if the parties
to which they belong put little
emphasis on immigrant-specific
issues, our having representation
can make all the difference.
Community parties
All that being said, there isn’t much
else that’s really different about this
municipal election season in Reyk-
javík from years past. Once again,
it’s basically down to the Social
Democrats versus the Independence
Party; the same binary conflict that
Reykjavík has had to contend with
for decades now. There’s a lot of new
parties running, but either way, it
looks like we’re headed for a coun-
cil led by one of these two parties.
Again.
Out in the countryside, things
are much different. And much more
interesting.
It’s a little-known fact to most
new arrivals that in Iceland’s rural,
sparsely-populated areas, individual
candidacies are very common. This
means instead of voting for political
parties, people in these regions vote
for individuals and their individual
platforms. In any modern city in the
world, this would be a radical form
of direct democracy. In the Icelandic
countryside, it’s business as usual.
When parties do run in rural
communities, it is quite common
for these parties to be specific to
the community. Parties such as
Ísafjörður List, Akureyri List, and
others have platforms that pertain
more to issues that their specific
community is facing rather than
some overarching ideology. It’s
refreshingly unhinged from both left
and right.
Wild, Wild Country
This system, however, can be taken
advantage of. The most recent and
fascinating example is happening
right now in Árneshreppur, a region
on the north coast of the Westfjords
that was home to 53 people. But then,
over the course of a 10-day period, 18
more people suddenly changed their
legal residence to Árneshreppur.
Why? Likely because of a planned
power plant at Hvalá river—most
locals support it, most environmen-
talists oppose it.
Moving the legal address of a
mass of people into a remote area
in the hopes of tipping votes in
favour of a particular issue definitely
evokes shades of ‘Wild, Wild Coun-
try’, the Netflix documentary about
the Rajneeshpuram community in
rural Oregon. Things in Árneshrep-
pur will likely play out less tragically.
National authorities are investigat-
ing.
The Árneshreppur controversy
is certainly grabbing headlines in
Iceland, but Icelanders have also
very astutely pointed out that former
Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð
Gunnlaugsson, amongst numerous
other parliamentarians, have also
moved their legal addresses to rural
districts while spending most, if
not all, their time in Reykjavík. This
has led many to the understandable
conclusion that, once again, things
that common people do that author-
ities crack down on can be done by
the rich and powerful with impunity.
Safe, predictable
Reykjavík
Here in Reykjavík, things are a lot
more boring. It’s interesting that,
contrary to most other western
countries, things are considerably
predictable in the urban area while
dynamic in the rural areas.
This isn’t to say we don’t get our
share of controversy in Reykjavík.
Some politicians on the city level
have used xenophobia as a ploy for
votes, and even Reykjavík City Coun-
cil didn’t come out unscathed from
the Panama Papers scandal.
For the most part, though, things
are fairly predictable and unevent-
ful in Reykjavík politics. As a Balti-
more native, I take this as a blessing.
There’s plenty that needs changing
and improving, but at least, for now,
we remain a relatively sleepy seaside
town in the North Atlantic. And
that’s just fine.
Municipal
Elections 2018:
Reykjavík
Is Boring

And I mean that in the nicest way
Words: Paul Fontaine

Kurt Alan Van Meter
René Biasone
Anna Maria Wojtynska
Nichole Leigh Mosty