Iceland review - 2015, Page 59

ICELAND REVIEW 57
PHOTO BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.
MID-TERM BLUES
One night in the lead-up to the
general election in Iceland a lit-
tle over two years ago I was at a
party where artists and collectors mingled.
The discussion turned to politics and the
upcoming election, the expectation being
that there would be a change of govern-
ment since support for the ruling coalition
of the Social Democratic Alliance and Left-
Green Movement was down to 34 percent.
“I’m voting for the Pirates,” said an elder
statesman of the European avant garde art
scene, clutching a glass of red wine. To my
surprise, there was a murmur of agreement
from almost everyone in the group around
him, mostly people in their sixties and sev-
enties. “Well,” I thought, “what else would
you expect from a bunch of silver-haired
revolutionaries than to vote for a party
which wanted to severely limit copyright
and allow free distribution of software and
music, as well as introduce direct democ-
racy.”
AHEAD OF THEIR TIME
It turns out that these people were a few
steps ahead of their time, as they have
always been. The 2013 parliamentary elec-
tion was won by the center Progressive
Iceland’s Progressive Party-Independence Party coalition government
recently celebrated its two-year anniversary. Half-way through its term,
Halldór Lárusson reflects on the government’s track record.
Party with 24.4 percent, and the center-
right Independence Party with 26.7 per-
cent, securing 19 MPs each. The Pirate
Party got 5.1 percent of the vote and
won three out of 63 seats—not bad for
what some saw as a loony fringe party.
Recently, however, the Pirates have been
scoring up to 34.5 percent in opinion polls,
making them the best-supported party in
Iceland. Meanwhile, support for Prime
Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s
Progressive Party has tanked to around 10
percent, while their coalition partner, the
Independence Party, has not suffered such
big losses. It’s been polling at around 23
percent, although historically their support
has usually been around 35-40 percent.
Acknowledging that opinion polls can
be fickle creatures, if an election were held
today, the Pirates would score 24 MPs,
more than the two ruling parties com-
bined. What started as a political move-
ment in Sweden in 2006 and spread to
other European countries only to fade away
seems to have taken off in Iceland.
But how is it that the Pirate Party became
the biggest political force in Iceland, two
short years after the last election? Probably
because the government’s track record has
been uneven, to say the least. It has failed
to get many of its bills through parliament,
while those it has managed to pass have
often proved controversial and unpopu-
lar. The opposition—including the Left-
Greens and Social Democrats, which made
up the previous government—has failed to
take advantage of the situation and there is
deep-seated mistrust of traditional politics.
In addition, PM Sigmundur Davíð has
proven a divisive figure who has sometimes
blamed media bias for his problems and
recently claimed that the lack of support for
the government was caused by a separation
between perception and reality in people’s
minds, arguing something along the lines
of, “You’ve never had it so good, you just
don’t see it.”
MAKING PROMISES AND KEEPING
THEM
The Progressive Party is a funny old beast.
A centrist-party founded by farmers at
the beginning of the 20th century, it has
been in government for much of the time
since, either turning to the left or the right
for coalition partners. The party’s time in
government from 1995-2007 as a coalition
partner of the Independence Party ended
with its support having virtually evaporat-