Iceland review - 2016, Page 83

I see a bright future with honest poli-
tics,” says Dagný Rut Haraldsdóttir.
She smiles and adds, “With a capital
B and capital F.” When we meet a few
weeks before the 2016 general election
on October 29, the 33-year-old mediator
and lawyer of the Association for Single
Parents in Iceland is running for Bright
Future (Björt framtíð). “I haven’t been
involved in politics much, but I was asked
to take a seat on the party’s list and felt
that I couldn’t refuse. I felt a sense of
responsibility.” This sentiment is echoed
by many of the other young would-be
parliamentarians, that taking a seat at
Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, is more
of an obligation than a career move. “I
was doing my dream job, annoying dicta-
tors,” states Smári McCarthy with a grin.
“But I was irritated about the situation
in Iceland and wanted to help improve
it.” The 32-year-old innovator and infor-
mation activist took part in founding
the Icelandic Pirate Party (Píratapartýið)
in 2012 but didn’t make it into par-
liament after the 2013 election. Until
recently he was the chief technologist of
the Organized Crime and Corruption
Reporting Project (OCCRP). “Being an
MP is not something I want to but have
to do. It’s time for me to take my shift. I
have extensive experience in designing
and developing systems and I’ve worked
on investigations of organized crime and
corruption.”
CHANGING POLITICS
Bright Future and the Pirate Party, both
located near the center of the Icelandic
political compass, were founded before
the last election in 2013 and earned five
and three seats in parliament, respective-
ly. Iceland’s political landscape is chang-
ing. Fjórflokkurinn—the term used to
collectively describe the four parties
which through Icelandic political history
have received the majority of votes—
might have to share Alþingi with a record
three other parties. Apart from Bright
Future and the Pirate Party, this includes
the liberal Reform Party (Viðreisn),
founded in 2016 and chaired by Iceland
Review publisher Benedikt Jóhannesson,
a former member of the Independence
Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn). Polish-
born, 36-year-old mathematician Pawel
Bartoszek, is running for the party. “I
want to see freedom for the individual,
free trade and Iceland taking an active
part in international and Western coop-
eration. The world is in crisis concerning
these issues; people are fighting against
the free flow of people and against free
trade, as we can see in the US. I want to
counteract that,” he says.
Fjórflokkurinn is comprised of
the conservative Independence
Party, the center Progressive Party
(Framsóknarflokkurinn), the center-
left Social Democratic Alliance
(Samfylkingin) and left-wing Vinstri
hreyfingin – grænt framboð (the Left-
Green Movement). Traditionally the
largest, the Independence Party is part
of the current coalition government with
the Progressive Party, and has been in
most governments in Iceland’s history
since it was founded in 1929. Earlier
this year, 26-year-old law student Áslaug
Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir was elected the
party’s secretary and is now running for
parliament. “We have a future vision for
Iceland; there’s no room for short-term
solutions. In the past three years, we have
laid the foundation for a successful soci-
ety; the state’s debts have been lowered
P O L I T I C S
ICELAND REVIEW 81