Parliament Protests.....Why?
- Vefstjóri Þórsgarður
- Mar 16, 2015
- 2 min read
It´s not always rainbows and butterflies, being neighbours with the Icelandic parliament. In fact, it´s pretty much only good for showing you how incredibly centrally located the hotel is.
Thankfully, the pots and pans revolution of 2009 taught us that it is safe to open another hotel next to parliament. Normally, protesters make a bit of noise and then leave for dinner like you would as well. But why are they protesting now? Isn´t Iceland the only nation to jail their banksters and doing a bang up job of lifting itself out of recession?
Yes and yes but that does not mean we are happy with everything. Just like we are the best country to be a woman in the world doesn´t mean we think we are where we want to be on the issue. The struggle continues. So what specifically is going on this time? Let us enlighten you:
You remember the European Union? Well, the last government, which came to power in 2009, ran on the premise of joining that. We didn´t trust the local boys and girls to run the country so why not join the big boys and have them handle the whole thing, plus a stable currency etc. Long story short, they started the process and by the time they were voted out of power in 2013, the process was not quite finished.
Now, we have a coallition government in power that categorically is against EU membership and made it their first priority to freeze talks with the EU. However, before the election, they promised everyone, several times that they would not pull the plug on EU membership or further talks without a national referendum, this being a democratic country and all that.
That´s where the story takes an ugly turn! They were actually lying! I know! Sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. But it´s a true story. The prime minister, the minister of finance, the minister of industry and many more, were quoted on video promising a referendum on whether to continue talks or pulling the plug and last week, without a referendum or even so much as passing it by parliament, the foreign minister, Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, snuck a letter over to Brussels, informing them that Iceland was no longer interested in being courted by the European Union and that we had basically moved on to bigger and better things.
So, despite what you might hear, the protests are not about whether to join the EU or not. They are about the democratic process in Iceland. 85% of the country wants a referendum and 100% country wants democracy over facism. That is what it´s all about.
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