Right now, there are around 500 people stationed out at Bessastaðir, the President’s residence, to urge him to veto the Icesave bill that was [finally!] passed in parliament just before midnight on December 30.
The Prez said on the 31st that he would meet with members of the In Defence group before making a decision whether or not to ratify the bill.
If the President does veto the bill, it will be referred to a national referendum, and it is almost certain that the majority of the nation want to reject the Icesave agreement.
Three days ago, In Defence claimed that 53,000 Icelanders had already signed a petition urging the President to veto the bill. Now, suddenly, there are over 60,000 people who have signed.
Egill Helgason, TV host and Iceland’s most popular blogger, writes on his blog that he’s done a quick investigation of the names that have been added to the petition during that time, and out of the last 100 names added he found 19 that were underage, and therefore not eligible to vote in a referendum.
In other words, this sudden growth spurt in the petition is a little suspicious.
Obviously I am not one of the ones stationed outside Bessasataðir right now, for the very simple reason that I am not convinced that vetoing the Icesave bill is the right thing to do. All options concerning the matter are bad – it’s simply a matter of choosing which is marginally best, and believe me, I would not want to be the individual having to make that decision.
I suspect the President feels the same – which is why he may very well veto the bill and refer it to the will of the people. Yet even in that case he will be deciding, since he probably knows that, in that instance, the Icesave agreement will be rejected.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch: I’ll be announcing some changes to this blog very soon. Nothing too radical, though. Stay tuned.
