Reykjavík Grapevine - sep. 2021, Blaðsíða 8

8 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09— 2021
Nearly four years ago, in the wake of snap
elections held after the collapse of the previ-
ous government, Iceland’s current coalition
government was formed. It was a tumultu-
ous process, involving negotiations between
eight different parties over a span of weeks.
In the end, it was three parties—the Left-
Green Movement, who ostensibly lead the
government, the Progressive Party and the
Independence Party—who managed to have
the most combined seats for a stable major-
ity, and who were able to hammer out a
power- and platforming-sharing agreement
between them.
This time around, nine parties—includ-
ing the new Socialist Party—are polling
high enough (or in some cases, almost high
enough) to win seats in Parliament. Mean-
while, the parties comprising the ruling
coalition are on a knife’s edge between hold-
ing and falling. On top of all this, the coro-
navirus pandemic has been dominating local
headlines, and the government’s manage-
ment of the situation and other parties’
proposed approaches to COVID-19, will
likely be key influences on people’s ballot-box
decisions—not to mention the influence it’s
had on campaigning, which has barely even
begun just a few weeks before election day
on September 25th, or the effect it may have
on voting itself. It’s a very unusual election
season for Iceland.
In this feature, we spoke to six candidates
from as many parties, spanning from the left
to the right, whose names have not been very
prominent in the media. We also spoke with
two political scientists for further analysis.
Here, you can learn what makes this elec-
tion special, what Iceland’s next government
needs to take care of first, where the differ-
ent parties stand, and why there are so few
immigrants in Parliament—despite the fact
that Iceland’s immigrants comprise over 15%
of the population.
For a more detailed overview of the plat-
forms of all the parties running, visit tinyurl.
com/icepar2021.
More parties, more problems
"What's very special about this election
is how many parties are running,” Hulda
#órisdóttir, Ph.D., an associate professor at
the Department of Political Science of the
University of Iceland, told us. “Not only that,
but how many parties are running that have a
very viable possibility of getting representa-
tives elected. This is a trend that started after
the economic crisis. It's almost stabilised,
and now we have so many parties that are
polling at around 10%.
“What makes this really interesting is
what comes after the elections,” she contin-
ues. “How is the government going to be
formed? That's probably going to be a very
difficult process, because a lot of negotia-
tions have to take place. There used to be
four or five parties, larger parties that were
a bigger umbrella for a wider variety of
opinions. But now with more parties, they
become somewhat narrower. You as a voter
can elect a party that's closer to your opin-
ions than you could maybe 15 years ago, when
you may not have found as close of a match
with your values. In many ways, this unique
situation is a referendum on the last four
years of a government spanning the left to
the right."
Eva H. Önnudóttir, a political science
professor at the University of Iceland, also
noted the number of parties running, but
also how the pandemic and this govern-
ment's has handling of it distinguishes these
elections.
"What makes this election special, in my
opinion, are the circumstances in which it's
taking place,” she said. “And by that I mean
the pandemic, which has been going on
for more than a year and a half now. While
typical left-right politics have been discon-
nected via the pandemic, which makes the
circumstances of this election special, the
main campaign issues will probably be typi-
cal important issues such as the healthcare,
welfare, the economy and the environment.
The government has had to deal with the
pandemic, so there hasn't been the usual
campaign points, such as about how far to
go when it comes to being socially minded
or individual minded and such."
The big three
"There’s no one [issue] that dominates
everything,” Hulda said. “But if I had to pick
one issue that's going to be on the mind of
most voters, that would be the healthcare
system. People on the left are worried that
it's underfunded, people on the right are
worried about too much centralisation in
the healthcare system and how it’s run. This
would be followed by one issue that's always
big—the economy, and how to get it going
strong after COVID—and then environ-
mental issues; what parties will be offering
credible and viable solutions, and not just
greenwashing."
"The campaign is only now just starting,
so we're still not yet seeing what are going
to be the major issues in this campaign,” Eva
cautions. “But we can assume that we'll be
seeing the usual big issues: the economy,
health care and welfare, and some parties are
also emphasising environmentalism. I think
it's probably not unlikely that amongst the
first things Parliament addresses is how we
deal with the pandemic going forward.”
Hulda agrees, believing that the pandemic
is inextricably woven into the issue of health
care in Iceland.
"This has been a very popular govern-
ment,” she told us. “It is a 'rally around the
flag' effect that we've been seeing, because
we've been fighting a common enemy. The
government was politically savvy enough to
think the best way through this was to give a
lot of power to the scientists in these matters,
with health care officials not making this
political.
“In terms of addressing the other issues,
if there is one issue in Iceland that crystal-
ises the difference between being on the left
and being on the right in economic issues,
it's attitudes towards the healthcare system.
There's really no disagreement over how
to fund health care. But there is disagree-
ment over who should provide the services;
whether that should solely be the govern-
ment, or if private organisations should be
allowed to do that, too.
“That's been a big tension within the
current government, but the Ministry [of
Health] has been with the Left-Greens, so
there has been more of the politics of that
party that have been implemented in the
healthcare system. People on the right have
voiced their disapproval of this. So it's hard
to say whether people are happy with this, it
really depends on whether you're on the left
or the right."
Our selection of candidates
In choosing who to reach out to, we had
some basic criteria. We chose little-known
to unknown candidates from parties running
in the greater Reykjavík area with a realis-
tic chance of getting into Parliament, who
had people of foreign extraction at least
10th on their list, and who were not openly
bigoted. This is why, despite the record of
the Independence Party in their leadership
position over some of the worst offenses of
the Directorate of Immigration, it is more or
less certain that they will be a part of the next
ruling coalition; they can’t exactly be ignored.
And this is also why, despite the Centre Party
featuring at least two immigrants on their
lists, they were not featured; their dangerous
anti-asylum seeker and anti-queer rhetoric is
a matter of public record, and does not need
to be platformed further. This same goes
for the People’s Party, in having no people
of foreign extraction on their lists, having
one of Iceland’s most notorious racists,
Magnús #ór Hafsteinsson, on their staff
and for barely polling high enough to gain a
seat. And the Reform Party is a special case,
having one person of foreign extraction on
their Reykjavík area lists, Rhea Juarez, but at
the 11th seat.
Here's what the candidates who made the
cut had to say:
Iceland faces a very unusual election season
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Art Bicnick
Crowded House:
Parliamentary
Elections In The
Pandemic