Guðni Jóhannesson elected President of Iceland

On Saturday the people of Iceland went to the polls to elect the successor to President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who will step down from the post he has held for twenty years on 1 August. The choice fell on the historian Guðni Jóhannesson, who received 39.1 % of the votes.
The incoming President, who turned 48 the day after his election, is an historian and assistant professor at the University of Reykjavik. Among his fields of research is the Icelandic presidency and among his books is one on the presidency of Kristján Eldjárn. He has also translated four Stephen King books into Icelandic.
The president-elect is unaffiliated to any political party, but this is not unusual in Iceland.

President of Iceland to stand for sixth term

At a press conference on Monday, President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland announced that he will after all stand for a sixth term in the presidential election to be held on 25 June. In his New Year's Speech, the President announced that he would retire at the end of his fifth term, but the uncertainty caused by the developments of the last weeks has made him reconsider. Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson was felled by the Panama Papers revelations and parliamentary elections will now be held in the autumn of this year rather than next year as previously planned. In this situation, a wish for the experienced president to continue grew into a "wave of pressure". As the formation of a new government may prove difficult, the President wants to ensure that the country is not without leadership, he said.
The office of President of Iceland is largely ceremonial, but unlike his predecessors, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who has led Iceland through difficult times, has repeatedly used the powers vested in the President. In 2010, he vetoed the so-called Icesave deal whereby the government had agreed to compensate Britain and the Netherlands for the financial losses suffered by citizens of those countries when the Icelandic banks collapsed. The President's veto led to a referendum being held, in which the majority endorsed his veto. In February the following year, he vetoed another similar deal, a veto which was again supported by the people in the referendum that followed. Recently he also refused the scandalised Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson's request for a dissolution of Parliament.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is the fifth President of Iceland since the country abolished the monarchy in 1944 and is already the longest-serving. For decades, no incumbent president was challenged for re-election, but in 1988, President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was challenged when she stood for a third time. Having won a resounding victory, she served until 1996, when she decided to stand down and Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson won the election to succeed her. He was challenged when he stood for re-election in 2000, but was unopposed in 2004 and then again challenged in 2008. In 2012, he announced he would not stand for re-election, but changed his mind after being petitioned by 30,000 citizens and was eventually elected with 52.78 % of the vote against 33.16 % for his closest opponent. This year he seems likely to face at least ten contenders who have already announced their candidacies.
Postscript: A few weeks later, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson again changed his mind and announced that he would after all not stand for a sixth term. This decision came after it was revealed that his wife Dorrit Mousaieff and her family were mentioned in the Panama papers. A spokesperson for the President said that the couple live completely independent lives and that he had no knowledge of her or her family's financial affairs.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson re-elected President of Iceland

Yesterday the Icelandic voters went to the polls to decide who would be the country’s president for the next four years and, as expected, the incumbent President, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, was elected for a fifth term. The President won more than 50 % of the votes, while his main challenger, 37-year-old TV journalist Thora Arnórsdóttir, won some 33 % of the votes cast.
69-year-old Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who is a political scientist by profession, has been President of Iceland since 1996. He initially announced in his new year’s speech that he would not stand for re-election, but a petition signed by 30,000 voters caused him to change his mind.
At the start of the campaign he trailed in the polls behind the politically inexperienced Thora Arnórsdóttir, but his campaign gained momentum while she was on maternity leave and in recent months polls had predicted the eventual outcome quite accurately.
This means that Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson becomes the first Icelandic President to serve more than four terms in office. The role of President of Iceland is largely ceremonial, but Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has been more politically active than his predecessors and has twice used his right to veto legislation, a right no earlier president had used. During the severe financial crisis which has hit Iceland in recent years, the President has thus distanced himself somewhat from the government. The main political difference between him and Thora Arnórsdóttir was her declared intention to return the presidency to its more passive, non-political role.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson was first elected President, with 41.4 % of the votes, in 1996 in succession to the universally beloved Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. He was re-elected unopposed in 2000, with 67.5 % of the votes in 2004 and again unchallenged in 2008.

President of Iceland to stand down

The President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, used his New Year speech to announce that he will not seek re-election to the office of President. After sixteen years as head of state he will thus leave office when his fourth and current term comes to an end on 1 August this year.
A political scientist by profession, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who will be 69 this year, was elected President with 41.4% of the votes in succession to Vigdís Finnbogadóttir in 1996. He was re-elected unopposed in 2000, won 67.5% of the votes cast in 2004 and again re-elected unopposed in 2008.
The role of President of Iceland is largely symbolical, but Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson has twice used his right to veto parliamentary legislation (and thus cause a referendum to be held), a right which none of his four predecessors had ever used.
The next President of Iceland will be elected by popular vote in June.
This means that both Nordic republics will get new heads of state this year, as the second term of the current President of Finland, Tarja Halonen, also expires this year and she is not constitutionally eligible for re-election.

President Vigdís turns 80 tomorrow

>Many of the readers of this blog will know that Friday is the Queen of Denmark’s 70th birthday, but it should not be forgotten that another Nordic female leader also celebrates a major anniversary this week. Tomorrow is the 80th birthday of Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, the former President of Iceland who also holds a place in world history as the first democratically elected female head of state.
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was educated in France, Denmark and Iceland and at the time she was asked to run for president she was the artistic director of a theatre as well as lecturing in French literature at the University in Reykjavik.
She won a narrow victory in the presidential election of 1980, receiving 33.6 % of the votes and thereby defeating three other (male) candidates. She ran unopposed for re-election in 1984 and 1992, and when challenged for the presidency in 1988 she received 95 % of the votes.
To the regret of her people she chose not to run for a fifth term and stood down in August 1996. Her successor, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, has in recent years taken the Icelandic presidency in a more political direction, but he has also had the ungrateful task of presiding over the ruin of his country in the wake of the financial crisis.
President Vigdís, as she is universally known in Iceland, where first names are more important than surnames, remains active and as a goodwill ambassador of UNESCO she is particularly dedicated to the preservation of languages.
I remember seeing her a few years ago in the middle of the Frederikke Square at the University of Oslo, standing serenely with her eyes closed enjoying the spring sunshine, still looking decades younger than her eighty years.

Swedish historian suggests new Kalmar union

Today the Nordic Council began its annual session, which this year is held in Stockholm. In an article in Dagens Nyheter the Swedish historian and author Gunnar Wetterberg takes it as an opportunity to suggest a radical strengthening of Nordic cooperation; indeed he proposes that the five Nordic countries should form a federal state, a modern version of the Kalmar union which existed from 1397 to 1523 (when Sweden broke away).
Wetterberg points out that the five Nordic countries together would be the tenth largest economy in the world, “just behind Canada and Spain but well ahead of Brazil and Russia”. This, Wetterberg argues, would give such a federal state a stronger voice on the world stage and strengthen its position in the EU (however, neither Norway nor Iceland is a member of the EU). Wetterberg also sees advantages for business and industry, culture and literature, education and science.
Gunnar Wetterberg suggests that the Nordic federal state should have a bicameral system, consisting of a lower house based on proportional representation and a senate whose composition would be less influenced by the sizes of the five countries. There should be one head of state, he argues, and points to Queen Margrethe II (apparently for the simple reason that the first monarch of the Kalmar union was Queen Margareta I), alternatively a Malaysian system whereby the position of head of state would revolve between the five states.
The federal state should be in charge of foreign policy, security, finances, laws, immigration, work, education and science. Schoolchildren should have to learn another Nordic language in addition to their own and official acts should be published in two languages – Finnish and one of the Scandinavian tongues. National laws should be harmonised gradually, Wetterberg suggests.
Wetterberg concludes that he thinks his idea is “fully realistic”. However, this is certainly not on the agenda in any of the Nordic countries and is highly unlikely to become an issue. However, Gunnar Wetterberg’s argument that the Nordic countries combined would be the tenth largest economy in the world reflects the idea of a shared G20 membership recently put forward by the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre.
There have overall been several ideas concerning a closer Nordic cooperation put forward recently. Following the collapse of the Icelandic economy a monetary union between Norway and Iceland was mentioned as an alternative to Icelandic membership of the EU and a panel led by Norway’s former Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg recently suggested a closer military cooperation between the Nordic countries. Another interesting development in inter-Nordic relations is that Denmark in recent years apparently has lost some interest and grown less committed to such issues.

The article in its entirety may be found here:
http://www.dn.se/opinion/debatt/de-fem-nordiska-landerna-bor-ga-ihop-i-en-ny-union-1.982761

Iceland applies for the EU

At a ceremony in Stockholm on Thursday the Foreign Minister of Iceland, Össur Skarphedinsson, formally presented his country’s application for the European Union to the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt (Sweden presides over the EU these six months).
It was after a lengthy debate that the Icelandic Parliament a week earlier voted by 33 against 28 to apply for membership of the EU. The negotiations are likely to take several years and will then be followed by a referendum.
It will be interesting to see how the Icelandic application will influence the EU question here in Norway. If Iceland joins the European Union, Norway will be left alone with Liechtenstein in the EEA, but opinion polls show a significant majority of the Norwegian opposed to EU membership and the question is also likely to tear apart almost any possible coalition government.
The photo shows Icelandic flags being flown together with the Swedish and EU flags outside the Swedish Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

Left-wing election victory in Iceland

After seven decades of right-wing rule, the people of Iceland have voted in a left-wing majority government.
The conservative Independence Party, which has been in government for eighteen years, has been justly blamed for the collapse of Iceland's economy last year. Having allowed the banking sector to grow to ten times the size of the country's BNP, the state could not possibly save the banks when they collapsed, throwing Iceland into a deep financial crisis.
After widespread demonstrations Geir Haarde's conservative government resigned in January and was replaced by a left-wing minority government formed by the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, led by interim Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir.
In this weekend's general election the Social Democratic Alliance won 28.8 % of the votes and 20 seats in Parliament, up by 2 from the previous election, and the Left-Green Movement 20.9 % and 14 seats (+5). The Independence Party received 22.9 % and 16 seats (-9). This gives the left-wing coalition a majority of 34 out of 63 seats in Parliament.
The election results also mean that there will be 43 % women in Parliament, which is a historic high for Iceland. Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir is also the country's first female Prime Minister, although Iceland had a female president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, in the years 1980-1996.
Partipication in the election was 85 %.

Articles in Klassekampen and The Guardian:

http://www.klassekampen.no/55986/article/item/null

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/26/iceland-election/sigurdardottir