Comments on: Here comes the revolution

By: Bob Moore co

Bob Moore co — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:02:22 +0000

As an Irishman, it’s scary to read your account – in many ways you could be talking about Ireland but we haven’t had the speaking out part yet. I guess our membership of the Eurozone has saved us from your fate so far. There’s a joke doing the rounds in Europe at the moment – “what’s the difference between Ireland and Iceland ? One letter and 6 months.”

I hope it’s not true but with the share price of our 2 main banks at 60 c and 40 c at the moment – when 12 months ago they were both above € 20 – I am not confident.

I wish you and yours all the best.

By: EEricson

EEricson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:42:50 +0000

A correction to my statement above. It is not very fair and too general to say “noone was listening”, rather: few were listening. Too few, too late.

By: EEricson

EEricson — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:48:50 +0000

Finally the public is demonstrating in Iceland. I found it mindboggling after coming back, after a long time in the United States, how people here just silently took the political CORRUPTION and OPPRESSION.
Yet people in other western countries were demonstrating over everything they wanted to oppose, naturally. Then I started to understand: NOONE WAS LISTENING. Just like noone listened to the warnings from Lars Christensen of Danske Bank and Robert Wade of LSE. Just like all the heads still sit on their posts, including the central bank head, contrary to the peoples´will and contrary to the criticism of both domestic and foreign experts. No, they were dumb and thought they knew it all. Dumb when they walked all over the people so footprints could be noted on peoples´backs. Dumb when they gave OUR banks to their political friends on a silver platter. Dumb when they almost gave away OUR electrical and heating company (Orkuveitan). Finally the people got angry enough to stand up.

By: Karl er á Íslandi. » Blog Archive » Ein Semester Island in Bildern

Karl er á Íslandi. » Blog Archive » Ein Semester Island in Bildern — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:18:18 +0000

[...] aussehen würde, wenn ich gerade vor Ort wäre. Täglich verfolge ich Nachrichten und Blogberichte aus dem politischen Chaos, dem sich die Isländer gelassen und mit vielen Ideen und Mut stellen, [...]

By: Gregg Thomas Batson

Gregg Thomas Batson — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:35:46 +0000

Guðmundur,

Yes, the Icelandic Constitution is an oddly written document. But the President “entrusting” his power to the ministers is really no different than a CEO entrusting his power to his management team. As long as the CEO holds the ultimate power of hiring and firing those people. Hence Article 15-Forsetinn skipar ráðherra og veitir þeim lausn. Hann ákveður tölu þeirra og skiptir störfum með þeim.(The President appoints Ministers and discharges them. He determines their number and assignments.) I am sure the legal experts have some rational explaination why the President can’t do this either. And Article 24 doesn’t say anything about a funtioning government. I guess what I would like to see is for the President to invoke the Article and let the courts decide what it really means. It seems such a waste to have 30 articles of a 79 article constitution refer to a position in the government that has no apparently has no power. Now that’s truly odd.

By: Guðmundur

Guðmundur — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:22:21 +0000

Yeah, I know, and IANAL so I can’t explain it well. But if I remember it right it has something to do with article 11 and/or 13:

11. grein
Forseti lýðveldisins er ábyrgðarlaus á stjórnarathöfnum. [The President of the Republic may not be held accountable for executive acts.]
…
13. grein
Forsetinn lætur ráðherra framkvæma vald sitt. [The President entrusts his authority to Ministers.]

If I understand this right, the president hands the executive power to the chosen prime minister and his ministers, and therefore has no executive power himself. Article 24 therefore does not come into play except when there is no functioning government in the country and all tries to form a government have been fruitless. Then the president doesn’t have a choice but to dissolve the parliament and call for elections. Basically, the prime minister is the only one who can dissolve the government, then the executive power goes back to the president, who then can either invites a leader of another political party in parliament to form a new coalition, or dissolves the parliament and calls for elections. So, while there’s a functioning government, the president doesn’t have the power to do much of anything. And I think legal experts agree on this.

But if Alda needs ideas for people to interview, Ragnar wouldn’t be a bad idea.

By: Gregg Thomas Batson

Gregg Thomas Batson — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:32:17 +0000

Guðmundur,
Article 24 of the Icelandic Constitution states:
24. gr. Forseti lýðveldisins getur rofið Alþingi, og skal þá stofnað til nýrra kosninga, [áður en 45 dagar eru liðnir frá því er gert var kunnugt um þingrofið],1) enda komi Alþingi saman eigi síðar en [tíu vikum]1) eftir, að það var rofið. [Alþingismenn skulu halda umboði sínu til kjördags.]1)
and the English tranlation from the Icelandic government´s webpage:
The President of the Republic may dissolve Althingi. A new election must take place within 45 days from the announcement of the dissolution. Althingi shall convene not later than ten weeks after its dissolution. Members of Althingi shall retain their mandate until Election Day.
I would like to know how Ragnar Adalsteinsson could conclude that the President of Iceland does not have the power to dissolve the Althing when it is so clearly stated in the constitution. It reminds me of the fiasco over the veto of the media bill. Everyone debated whether the President could actually veto a bill when it is again clearly stated in Article 26.

By: Guðmundur

Guðmundur — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:15:55 +0000

Dave, there were around 1300 people present at the meeting on monday. Add to that several thousands watching it on the telly last night, hopefully more people will wake up after this.

Concerning asking the president to call for elections, well, that actually doesn’t work as he doesn’t have the power. I was at a meeting with Ragnar Adalsteinsson couple of months ago (Ragnar is the foremost human rights lawyer in Iceland and more often than not find himself in opposition to those in power) and he said all legal experts agreed that the president does not have the power to dissolve the government and call for elections. There is another option in the constitution, called “Landsdómur” (basically what in english is called impeachment), where the parliament can charge a minister for perjury, but this option doesn’t work as there’s hardly any distinction between the legislative and the executive branch in Iceland and the government always has the majority in the parliament, so there’s not a chance in hell anyone will be impeached.

So, basically, in Iceland, the only one who can dissolve the government and call for elections is… the government. Quite scary. So, yes, we need a new constitution, with a clear separation of the legislative and the executive branch.

By: David

David — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:57:19 +0000

Well, Mr. Davíð Oddsson will not easily let go of his office any more than a monkey will let go of a sweet. You know the story of how hunters used to catch monkeys in Asia: “They would hollow out a coconut, leaving a hole just big enough for a monkey to slip its hand in, but not big enough for the monkey to pull its fist out. The hunters would then attach the coconut to a tree with a rope and put a sweet treat in the hole. When a monkey came by it would smell the treat, reach in with its hand to grasp it, and get trapped. It was incapable of letting go.”)

It seems Mr. Davíð Oddsson is also incapable of letting go. However, if he is a little smarter than a monkey, he will let go of his position as protests reach a crescendo. But whether he’s smarter than an monkey is – as yet – an unanswered question.

By: Dave Hambidge

Dave Hambidge — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 13:13:09 +0000

Heady stuff!

How many Icelanders were actually present at this event? Enough to turn rhetoric into action?

dave