Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2018, Síða 13

13 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2018
Gnarr’s ostensibly revolutionary Best
Party was fairly indistinguishable from
the Social Democrats, in terms of policy.
Small wonder Gnarr chose the Social
Democrats as partners.
Tipping the balance
As I write this, who will actually lead the
city is still undecided (thought by the
time you read this, it will be). The math
is precarious. Apart from the gains of
the Two Towers, the Left-Greens held
their own single seat, and the Pirates
pulled ahead to go from one seat to
two. Meanwhile, three parties with a
parliamentary presence —the Reform
Party, the Centre Party and the People’s
Party—won four seats altogether; two
of which belong to the Reform Party
now. The Socialist Party, an absolute
newcomer to election campaigning,
also secured a seat (more on them
later).
Given that it takes 12 seats to form
a majority, things look very delicate
for the Social Democrats. They would
need not only their partners from the
previous majority, the Left-Greens and
the Pirates, in order to secure a coali-
tion; they would also need to do a little
juggling. Convince the centre-right
Reform Party to pick their side? Bring
the People’s Party into the fold? Some
combination of all these things? It’s not
ideal.
The Independence Party has an
easier time of it, but not entirely.
Having the Centre Party and the
Reform Party on their side would give
them a solid 12 seats, but the Centre
Party aligning with them is not neces-
sarily a given. And pretty much every
other party has ruled out helping the
Independence Party.
This is why people are saying the
Centre Party is in the key position here.
Their affiliation with the right aside,
they have little warmth for the Inde-
pendence Party .
The bright side
There is, however, plenty to be happy
about. The Socialist victory matters,
and not just because they campaigned
aggressively and well. Sanna Magda-
lena Mörtudóttir, the Socialist’s new
city councilperson, is Reykjavík Coun-
cil’s first woman of colour, and now the
youngest member of City Council at the
tender age of 26, beating Independence
Party stalwart Davíð Oddsson’s record
from 1974.
In fact, women, in general, were the
big winners in the municipal elections
across the country. In Reykjavík, our
City Council will now be mostly women.
There are also now two immigrants,
Sabine Leskopf of the Social Democrats
and Pawel Bartoszek of the Reform
Party.
Speaking of immigrants: if you enjoy
a little schadenfreude, it may please you
to learn that the far-right anti-immi-
grant Icelandic National Front managed
to not only secure a record-breaking low
number of votes—125—but they also
secured fewer votes than the number of
signatures of support that they needed
to run in the first place. So low were
their numbers, in fact, that you’d need
to go all the way back to 1924, when
Reykjavík was pretty much a fishing
village of 20,000 people, to find a party
that managed to fail harder.
The lesson
When all the formal talks have
concluded, and Reykjavík is being run
by either the Independence Party or the
Social Democrats, take heart. There’s
more women and more immigrants on
the Council now. There’s more diversity
of ideas. And none of the openly racist
parties managed to win a seat. Life isn’t
so bad in Iceland’s capital after all.
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The famous mayoral barnet