Independence Party

Ingvi Hrafn hangs himself on TV

October 15, 2010

OK, I just have to share this. What we have here is one Ingvi Hrafn Jónsson, supporter of the Independence Party and castigator of all things Eva Joly, denouncing [um, too polite a word] the good lady and the work of the Special Prosecutor’s Office on his private television station, INN. I doubt if such [...]

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Bread and circuses

September 28, 2010

Monumental day today: for the first time in Iceland’s history, parliament voted to indict a former prime minister for negligence and misconduct in the line of duty. I am, of course, referring to Geir H. Haarde and his involvement in the Icelandic economic meltdown. Three others were up for indictment with him [I wrote about [...]

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Parliamentary committee recommends indictments for ex-PM and others

September 12, 2010

Some pretty big news yesterday. A parliamentary committee, appointed to recommend whether or not any public officials should be indicted as a result of their involvement in the economic collapse in 2008, delivered its findings yesterday afternoon. There had been a fair bit of tension beforehand, particularly as it was known that the committee — [...]

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Meanwhile back in Iceland we have political scandal

August 13, 2010

From my vantage point here in Bulgaria, I’ve been loosely following the news back home. Seems Minister of Economic Affairs Gylfi Magnússon is in deep doo-doo. Apparently he knew about the illegality of the FX loans more than a year ago, but chose not only to keep mum, but to lie about it to members [...]

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The new mayor opens a diary and other fun stuff

June 20, 2010

So, as most people reading this will know, we have a new mayor here in Iceland in the form of comedian Jón Gnarr, of the Best Party. The Best Party essentially stormed out of nowhere last spring and stole the Reykjavík local elections from the [corruption-ridden] Independence Party [who despite their corruption-riddedness still have loads [...]

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Of June 17 and rescinding the EU application

June 14, 2010

So an MP for the Independence Party, Unnur Brá Konráðsdóttir, along with several other MPs, is currently preparing a parliamentary resolution that would have Iceland rescind its application to the European Union. Meanwhile, Bloomberg has a draft declaration from the upcoming meeting which states that Iceland’s accession application will be approved at a meeting of [...]

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Raise the alarm: Iceland’s dreaded Water Act

June 13, 2010

For those of us who care about our country and its future, by far the most pressing current issue is the implementation of the Water Act from 2006, due to take effect on 1 July — in just over two weeks. The Act, the implementation of which has been postponed twice, would allow the owners [...]

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Politics and business in the lead-up to the collapse: more sordid revelations

June 7, 2010

One of the recurring annoyances for Icelandic politicians over the last few weeks has been the relentless demand by the public that they reveal who their main supporters were in their election campaigns in recent years. After all, the economic meltdown seems to have been at least partly caused by the unholy alliance of politics [...]

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First exit polls: Best Party front runner in Reykjavík

May 30, 2010

Well, the first exit polls in the municipal elections are in. As predicted by the polls the Best Party is largest in Reykjavík, with around 8,000 votes of around 21,000 ballots counted. The Independence Party gets around 7,000 of those votes and loses two council seats. According to those figures, the Best Party gets six [...]

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Score one for New Iceland!

April 25, 2010

This past Friday, Reykjavík District Court ruled that the Icelandic state and Árni Mathiesen, former Minister of Finance for the Independence Party, should pay ISK 3 million in compensation to an applicant for the position of district court judge in North Iceland back in 2005. The applicant, Guðmundur Kristjánsson, was deemed the most qualified for [...]

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