Reykjavík Grapevine - Oct 2021, Page 4

What Are Icelanders
Talkin! About?
Stop the presses, there are people with
opinions!
Words: Andie Sophia Fontaine Photos: Twitter & Wikimedia Commons
The biggest news right
now is concerning our
general elections, which saw the
ruling coalition of the Left-Green
Movement, Independence Party
and Progressive Party expand from
33 to 37 of Parliament’s 63 seats.
However, this was largely due to the
strong performance of the Progres-
sive Party, who gained five seats,
while the Independence Party held
steady and the Left-Greens lost
one. While these three parties are,
at the time of this writing, in talks
about whether and how to continue
their partnership, the results have
led to much speculation across the
political spectrum. Icelanders on
the right believe the Independence
Party and the Progressives should
pick another centre-right party to
join them in government, while
Icelanders on the left have been a
bit more creative. Pirate MP !órhil-
dur Sunna Ævarsdóttir has floated
the suggestion that the Left-
Greens and the Progressives could
bring the Social Democrats into a
new coalition that would have the
support of the Pirates, resulting
in a minority government with 33
seats. What we will end up getting
might become evident by the time
you’re reading this.
In other news, the national
men’s football team continues
to have a sexual assault prob-
lem. Most recently, team captain
Aron Einar Gunnarsson has been
implicated, as a survivor has come
forward alleging Aron sexually
assaulted them in 2010, which
Aron categorically denies. The
scandal has been worst of all for
survivors, who point to the lack of
sympathy and support they have
received, as indicative of many
people’s preferential feelings
for the football team. The entire
board of KSÍ, the national football
association, has resigned in the
midst of this scandal, while Vanda
Sigurgeirsdóttir has recently been
elected to KSÍ’s directorship, a first
for a woman.
Just as the volcanic eruption at
Geldingadalur has begun to calm
down a bit, new seismic activ-
ity has been recorded in Reyk-
janes. For a nation already weary
from the eruption, there has been
considerable worry that another
volcano is on its way, but the jury
is still out amongst scientists as to
whether the earthquakes do in fact
signal a new eruption or are just
the result of magma connected to
the current eruption. Either way,
the news has certainly been excit-
ing for those outside of Iceland, if
the web traffic to our articles on
this subject are any indication. As
with all things seismic, it is impos-
sible to predict what will come
next.
4The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10— 2021First
NEWS
Aron Einar Gunnarsson
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More seismic shi"s in the southwest
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