He said, she said

It’s been hard to know whether to laugh or cry while watching Geir and Ingibjörg [the leaders of the two ex-coalition parties] carp and bicker today. They’re like an old married couple on the brink of divorce who have been working overtime to present a united front, but whose carefully-constructed façade has finally come tumbling down, exposing the real nasties beneath.

According to the Social Democrats the IP has been dragging its ass in just about every way, most notably when it comes to housecleaning at the Central Bank. The IP [they say] has broken every promise they have ever made [reportedly there have been several] to oust Doddsson and his cronies. The SDs have long wanted Doddsson gone and, to be fair, have made no secret of that – we just didn’t know about the extent of their frustration.

[At which I must – and not for the first time – take pause to marvel at the sway Doddsson holds over the Independence Party, the almost elegant way in which he holds the entire party hostage. Indeed, that impenetrable ego of his that thus far has prevented him from stepping down from his ebony tower has now quite clearly delivered the kiss of death to this coalition, which started out with so much promise. Well done, Doddsson. You may now take your place in the Narcissists’ Hall of Fame.]

The IP, on the other hand, accuses the Social Democrats of inner-party dissent, to the point where they have been impossible to work with. They also take offense at the fact that they [SDs] issued them [IP] with an unacceptable ultimatum: that the IP [which incidentally has been in power for 17 long years] move aside and let the SDs take over as leaders of the government, since they were/are quite clearly incapable of getting anything done.

Meanwhile, PM [notforlong] Haarde said on TV this evening that he had presented a stellar offer to the SDs: that he would step aside and let vice-chair Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir take the helm [… er, wait … doesn’t the PM have cancer? wouldn’t he have to step aside anyway?] and to allow Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs and leader of the SDs take over as Minister of Finance [wait … doesn’t she have cancer …? And isn’t she already the MFA? - I'm confused] … an offer that the SDs foolishly rejected.

Anyway, bottom line, it looks like a national government with the five parties involved is now out of the question [can’t have ex-Mr. and ex-Mrs. Coalition glaring at each other across the table, can we now?] and that one of the two other options – extraparliamentary government or minority government – will have to be employed. The Prez met with all the party leaders this evening, and at this moment a minority government seems most likely, made up of the Social Democratic Alliance, the Left-Greens and the Progressive Party.

Ah, me. The fun just never stops. Whatever will they entertain us with tomorrow?

PS – here is a link to a piece I wrote for The Guardian today about Da Great Collapse. As before, I see reason to point out that neither the title nor the sub-title are mine. Grumble.

[Oh, and apologies to anyone who was trying to access the site earlier but without success - my hosting service was having yet another outage. Seriously, the next time I can afford 48 hours of downtime I'm moving to a different ISP. I mean it now!]

Tagged as: government collapse