Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.01.2018, Page 2

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2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • January 1 2018
visir.is – Political science professor
Eiríkur Bergmann says the victor in
Frettablaðið’s early December survey on
political party support and government
support is the old four-party group – that is,
the Independence Party (IP), Progressive
Party (PP), Left-Green Movement (LGM),
and Social Democratic Alliance (SDA).
The survey, which was conducted during
the week following the announcement of
a new coalition government, shows that all
four parties have increased their support
since the October election. The old four-
party group includes the above parties
and their predecessor parties: the People’s
Alliance, predecessor of LGM, and the
Social Democratic Party, predecessor of
the SDA. The IP, PP and LGM are in the
government, and the SDA is the biggest
party in the Opposition.
“We can perhaps say that we are now
in a position like the situation before the
collapse, when many governments won
considerable support in the beginning, and
that politics is rather settling down because
the victor in this survey is the old four-party
group, so to speak – its support shoots up to
again becoming three quarters of the nation.
Thus, the wave here following the collapse
appears to be settling somewhat,” Eiríkur
Bergmann told the newspaper Vísir.
However, he said that the survey did
not necessarily say everything about
future support for these parties, as well as
the government. “We have often seen that
support for governments fades very fast,
so even though the support is solid at the
start, it says nothing about the future. It can
dwindle quickly, as we have seen, but the
government has a very strong following at
its beginning,” he said.
When asked whether the government
collaboration would make it more difficult
for the new parties, he replied that very
many things indicated that people were
tired of turbulence in politics. “This
survey shows that people are now aligning
themselves with the old four-party group,”
said Eiríkur, adding, “it seems to me
that what is actually most remarkable
about this survey is how this four-party
phenomenon is incredibly persistent in
Icelandic politics.”
Reprinted with permission from
Icelandic News Briefs, published by
KOM PR.
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Are Icelanders returning to their
traditional parties?
December poll shows noteworthy
shifts in party support
A poll conducted for the newspaper
Frettablaðið, in the aftermath of
Iceland’s new government taking
office, revealed a dramatic upsurge in
support for the Left-Green Movement
and a general shift in public opinion
towards the country’s four traditional
parties and away from the smaller parties
that currently hold seats in Alþingi.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister
Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the new government
is a coalition of Left-Greens with the
Independence and Progressive parties.
The poll showed strong support
for the new coalition, indicating that
78 percent of Icelanders support the
government. This is the second-highest
approval rating for a government during
the past two decades. The poll also
indicated that, if an election had been
held in December, two parties that won
seats in Alþingi in October, the Reform
and People’s parties, would have been
eliminated from parliament. In addition,
the Pirate and Centre parties would have
seen their seat counts reduced.
The Left-Green Movement saw its
support surge from 16.9 percent in the
election to 23.5 percent. Its coalition
partners also saw small increases in support:
the Independence Party moved up from
25.3 to 26.4 percent and the Progressive
Party moved from 10.7 to 11.3 percent.
The largest party in opposition, the Social
Democratic Alliance, also saw an increase
in support from 12.1 to 13.4 percent.
Other parties registered a decline
in support. The Pirates dropped from
9.2 to 7.7 percent and the Centre Party
from 10.9 to 7.4 percent, but both parties
would have remained in Alþingi. The
Reform Party declined from 6.9 to 4.8
percent, which is just below the five-
percent threshold needed to earn seats,
while the People’s Party fell from 6.9
to 4.0 percent. Bright Future, which
was part of the previous coalition
government, scored only 0.5 percent
and all other parties had the collective
support of 1.0 percent of those surveyed.
Iceland was abuzz in December with
the news that Jennifer Lawrence
will play Agnes Magnúsdóttir in
the film version of Burial Rites, which
is based on Hannah Kent’s bestselling
novel of the same name. Rumours have
been circulating for at least two years
that Lawrence would be cast in the
role and they were finally confirmed
by Variety magazine, which announced
that she would also co-produce the film
for TriStar Pictures, which secured
worldwide film rights to the book. Luca
Guadagnino, who recently directed Call
Me by Your Name, will direct the film.
Burial Rites tells the story of
Agnes Magnúsdóttir, who, in 1830,
was the last person to be executed in
Iceland for a double homicide that
occurred two years earlier. The story
follows Agnes’s life as she awaits her
execution by beheading.
It is reported that the film crew has
already begun scouting out locations
in the country, including the Vatnsnes
region, where the murders took place in
real life, and Vatnsdalur, where Agnes
was held awaiting her execution. Both
areas still reflect the rugged natural
beauty found there two centuries ago.
Jennifer Lawrence, 27, has been
acting professionally since she was 14,
but it was her role as Katniss Everdeen in
The Hunger Games that catapulted her
to fame. She has also had roles in Silver
Linings Playbook, American Hustle,
and X-Men. It is reported that she was
the highest-paid actress in the world in
2015 and 2016. Her acceptance of the
lead role in Burial Rites underscores
the dramatic power of Hannah Kent’s
historical novel.
mbl.is – “I presented there Iceland’s
goal of a carbon-neutral Iceland in
2040, and how we intend to achieve it,
and it was well received,” said Prime
Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir. She
presented the new government’s plans
for environmental and climate change
matters at the One Planet Summit held
in Paris in December. French President
Emmanuel Macron invited leaders to
the summit on the two-year anniversary
of the signing of the Paris Agreement
on Climate Change, in collaboration
with the secretary-general of the
United Nations and the World Bank’s
president. “As a small nation with
renewable energy sources, we ought to
have great opportunities to go farther, and
this was well received. There are more
nations setting such goals, but we are
ambitious with the timing, and we intend
to be five years ahead of our neighbours
in the Nordic countries, according to
what emerged at the meeting,” said the
new prime minister.
Reprinted with permission from
Icelandic News Briefs, published by
KOM PR.
ICELAND INTENDS TO BE
CARBON-NEUTRAL BY 2040
Jennifer Lawrence to star
in Burial Rites