Icelandic municipal elections, 2018

[Deleted]

Iceland is having municipal elections on the 26th of May. I will mostly focus on Reykjavík, with a few detours to its suburbs and Akureyri.

In the capital the election includes a classic urbanism/density vs. car culture/sprawl conflict, and since Iceland is a de facto city state (with a heck of a lot of hinterland..) it will also have national consequences.

Reykjavík is historically a bastion of the conservative Independence Party, but has been ruled by the left since 2010, when comedian Jón Gnarr in the post-crash anti-establishment atmosphere assembled a "Who's Who of Icelandic punk rock" list called the Best Party and won the mayorship supported by the Social Democrats in the SDA. That era is now finally closing as the last rocker Björn Bløndal (bass player in HAM in which former party chairman Óttarr Proppé was lead singer, and current group chairman of the successor to the Best Party) isn't seeking reelection. When Gnarr stepped down in 2014 his allies in SDA got the Mayorship for the physician and former deputy chairman of the party Dagur B. Eggertsson (45), who is quite popular. He heads a coalition with the Best Party successor party Bright Future, the Pirates and the Left Greens.

I will do a portrait of the two candidates for mayor below.

Campaign issues

The city is experiencing rapid growth and the tourist boom has pressed out creative types, studios, artsy cafés, normal shops, and even just normal people from the inner city; rents have soared and traffic pressure is increasing. The left wants to remedy this by pursuing an “urbanist" strategy creating increased density by building on vacant lots, old industrial sites, and parking lots and establishing a BRT network of express buses going in reserved lanes to four stations, which will then be linked to the Keflavík airport.

The Independence Party has called this an attack of private car culture (literally private car-ism, but afaik there isn't an English term for that) and instead want to build three new neighbourhoods on the outskirts of the city. They do have a bus plan, but its limited to building a new bus terminal at the largest shopping center and relies on traditional busses using regular car lanes, not the big BRT ones.

Reykjavík has a quaint "town centre", but the bulk of the city is build for the car in the post-war boom years and stretching out to clusters of houses on barren black lava fields that in an odd way are strangely reminiscent of US desert suburbs in places like Nevada. In many ways it resembles a North American city more than a continental European, and Icelanders love their cars. A steadily growing number of cars in the Reykjavík region are electric, but there is obviously a significant environmental consequences involved in this as well.

Then there is the airport, which the Brits build during the war on farm land which is now adjacent to the city centre, some 20 years ago the government agreed with that the city could have the land for building new housing. So far every government has dragged its feet on this or tried to renege on the decision, but the courts have ruled that the deal stands. The right claim patients would die if their wasn't an airport close to the national hospital do not want the place closed (never heard of choppers, I guess) and that the capital region needs two airports in different weather belts; the left dream of builing a brand new airport for both foreign and domestic travel midway between Reykjavík and Keflavík. The third runway was closed some years ago and both affordable housing and luxury apartments are now being build. If IP wins the pressure on the government for building a new airport will diminish greatly.

There will be 23 seats in the City Council this time, up from 15, which is an automatic consequence of population growth, but the Independence Party are running populist campaign against such wastefulness and want to (totally unrelated to them getting rid of having to build coalitions with small parties in a 23 seat council..).

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The rivals

The incumbent:

The current Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson (45) was the deputy chairman of the SDA 2009-13 during the post-crash leftist government. He is on the "Blairite" right of the party and repeatedly intrigued against and undermined PM Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, as such he is probably one of the main culprits for Iceland never getting implementing the "people's constitution" the Constitutional Council agreed on; when the party went into opposition in 2013 he had to step down. He has been on the City Council since 2002 and was briefly mayor for three months back in 2007-8, but his coalition broke down when the councillor for the right wing populist Liberals defected .

Dagur is a medical doctor by profession, but worked as a tv-journalist while he was a grad student. He then took a couple of years off after graduation to write a mammoth biography of former PM Steingrímur Hermannsson before he got his first hospital job. At 45 his boyish good looks are starting to fade, but he is still a handsome man. He is quite personally popular and has been an efficient mayor, who has been good at managing his coalition.

The challenger:

His challenger Eyþór Arnalds (53) from IP is one of those types who are good at everything. He plays five instruments (flute, violin, piano, trumpet and cello), has a degree in composing and cello from the Academy of Music in Reykjavík, studied with renowned Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, and got his exam project performed by the National Symphony Orchestra (because of course he did).

As a teenager he was the lead singer in pop-punk band Tappi Tíkarrass 1981-83 together with Björk (who both starred in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's documentary Rokk í Reykjavík), and was later lead singer in enormously popular poprock band Todmobile 1988-1993 + a couple of less successful bands in between those and in the mid-90s.

He also set up a recording studio when he was 22, produced albums for other musicians, and wrote a lot of pretty good songs.

In between all of this he somehow also found time to study law at the University of Iceland. In the mid-90s he got an MBA from the University of Reykjavík, studied at Harvard Business School (though apparently without graduating, what a loser.. ) and moved into business where he mainly has worked in telecommunications and energy.

Eyþór has among other things been manager of Strokks Energy and Íslandssíma (which became Icelandic Vodafone), and CEO of the start-ups OZ og Enpocket, which were bought by Nokia. He currently sits on 26 corporate boards.

He was chairman of the city council in southern satelite town Árborg 2010-14. Other than that his political experience is rater limited, but he is the largest shareholder in Iceland's sole for pay daily the staunchly conservative Morgunblaðið, which counts for a lot in IP.

But the thing everyone is talking about is that Eyþór, a devout personal Christian, went on nutty fundamentalist tv-station Omega, and agreed to being chosen by God to run Reykjavík, a statement he later backtracked.

More specifically he said he had consulted with God as he hoped someone else could take on the office and knew it would be a lot of work, so he asked God for strength to say no, but it ended up differently as the Lord works in mysterious ways, and "my will did not matter, and now I am here".

And yes, the former popstar, composer, investor and CEO is here. It remains to be seen if a majority of Reykjavikians want him as their mayor.

[Deleted]

A Conservative legacy

IP traditionally always dominated Reykjavík and had the mayor 1932-1978 and 1982-1994 with no less than five of the mayors going on to become PMs (Jón Þorláksson, Bjarni Benediktsson the Elder, Gunnar Thoroddsen, Geir Hallgrímsson and Davíð Oddsson).

Then the left formed the Reykjavík List, which managed to get Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir from the Women's List elected mayor in 1994 (later SDA chairman and Foreign Minister), and she held the post until 2003 - when LG and the Progress Party demanded she stepped down - and was replaced by an independent businessman.

The success of the Reykjavík List was what led to the formation of SDA as an attempt to copy the model nationally.

The Reykjavík List regained the post 2004-06, but Ingibjörg's successor was quite unimpressive, and IP returned briefly 2006-07 to be followed shortly by Dagur B. and some guy from the Liberals. After all this mess with three mayors in two years Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir became mayor in 2008 and IP thought she would dominate for a decade and move on to become PM, as so many of her predecessors, but then the crash happened. The Best Party won and allied with SDA, and when Gnarr stepped down Dagur B. took over. Getting Reykjavík back is considered a must for IP.

As the successors to the Reykjavík List SDA have a much more solid position in the city than they do nationally.

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Polling

The January poll from Gallup with a four week sample had BF dropping out of the council, which would likely be the final nail in the coffin for them. I doubt they can reenter the Althing without the media profile it gives to be in the Reykjavík city council. SDA are doing better now that they are getting the remaining Best Party legacy vote from BF and Dr. Dagur has a clear majority behind him and looks set to continue as mayor. PP are losing all the votes they got on the anti-Mosque gimmick. Most of their Reykjavík chapter went to Centre, which are polling around 1%. Dawn have given up on running.

Coalition: 13

SDA 25.7 (-6.2) 7
LG 13.3 (+5.0) 3
Pirates 13.3 (+7.4) 3
BF 2.4 (-13.2) 0

Opposition: 10

IP 29.1 (+3.4) 8
PP 2.9 (-7.8 ) 0

Reform 6.4 (new) 1
Peoples Party (new) 4.8 1
Centre 1.1 (new) 0

Others 0.6 0

Viðskiptablaðið broke down the poll in postal codes, and SDA leads big in "101" with around 40%, which underlines they are now the designated hipster party. You need a pretty high income to live in 101 these days (unless you are in student housing), so its interesting 101 still is so leftist, I would have thought it had moved a bit further right when the arty types where squeezed out. IP only gets around 20% in the "midtown" and neighbouring Vesturbær.

The Pirates are also doing quite well in 101 and have their best result in Árbær and Norðlingaholt. On average the Pirate strongholds are significantly wealthier and more middle class than the LG strongholds, which is interesting. They aren't all paupers and students, big parts of the creative class are quite well off.

Árbær is filled with functionalist architecture and located in some of the most beautiful nature in the capital area. The Elliðaárdalur river valley goes right through it and it also has then Open Air Museum. So a place that attracts alternative types with a strong economy.

IP unsurprisingly dominates the affluent eastern suburbs and top 40% in Grafarvogur, Grafarholt and Kjalarnes, where Viðreisn gets their best results as well.

LG does best in western Reykjavík with support from ca. 25% in the "poor" part of Vesturbær and Melar. LG are also well above 20% in the working class neighbourhoods Hlíðar and Laugardalur. They are a very mixed bag, but include some of the most rundown parts of central Reykjavík.

LG could in principle get all their votes from public employees and students as the stereotype says, but with that distribution it would be odd if they hadn't a decent working class vote as well. The usual narrative is that LG only has working class support in the north, but that may be a little exaggerated.

www.vb.is/frettir/sjalfstaedisflokkurinn-sterkur-i-austri/144934/

A February 27-28 poll from Fréttablaðið (generally not a quality pollster) was somewhat better for IP.
www.visir.is/g/2018180228875

IP 35.2 (+9.5) 9 seats

Ruling coalition: 13 seats
SDA 27.2 (-4.7) 7 seats
LG 12.0 (+3.7) 3 seats
Pirates 8.9 (+3.0) 3 seats
BF 0.7 (-14.9)

Others: 2 seats
Centre 6.0 (new) 1 seat
Reform 4.2 (new 1 seat

PP 3.4 (-7.3)
People's Party 1.9 (new)
Icelandic Socialist Party 0.5 (new)

[Deleted]

The working class vote

In the post-war era the Reykjavík working class was divided into Reds and pro-American "blue working class". 60% of the inhabitants in Reykjavík were born in the countryside in 1940, so there wasn't that big a rural/urban divide back then apart from a tendency to ditch the Progress Party when you migrated to the city. A lot of the working class were recently arrived hicks and not disposed towards Socialism (and the Socialist Party were Euro-Communists with a fully Marxist platform). IP were perceived as the national party by many and got votes from all social classes.

After the chairman of the trade union congress co-founded the People's Alliance in 1956 most of the Reds that hadn't already gone to the Socialists went with him, and the Social Democrats that until 1943 were identical with the trade union congress and a quintessential labour party (the same delegates literally went from being the trade union congress in the morning to reconvening as the party congress in the afternoon...), became increasingly middle class (much earlier than other Western European Social Democracies).

IP went "neo-liberal" in the 1990s and lost a lot of their traditional working class vote as Cold War conflicts faded into irrelevance. But not all of it.

Many working class people are fairly anti-politics. They loved Gnarr (dyslexic working class boy from trade union family made good with an anti-establishment profile and often dark humor) and backed the Best Party, but probably deserted BF. The Pirates were backed by a lot of working class guys when they were big, but fewer women. Which is why I found their distribution slightly surprising.

In Reykjavík municipal politics I would expect the Social Democrats to have some working class support as the heir to the Reykjavík List and the party that has the mayor (Dagur B. is quite popular). Its the established anti-IP party, and LG have never been a real factor in Reykjavík municipal politics (only as spoilers) and they have a reputation for infighting and factionalism.

The People's Party vote is overwhelmingly elderly working class.

[Deleted]

The Independence Party

After eight years in opposition the IP primary in Reykjavík resulted in a landslide win for businessman Eyþór Arnalds. He sits on no less than 26 corporate boards, so not exactly a guy that signals a break with their close ties to the fat cats, which is a big part of IP's image problem among centrist voters. IP have also decided to oppose the ruling coalition's proposal to introduce a network of express buses in Greater Reykavík, because it threatens private car ownership (sic!), and since its very popular I doubt they are going to get many cross-over votes from the centre-left.

But more interestingly for those of us who view politics as a bloodsport both the two sitting councillors that ran against Eyþór A. (Kjartan Magnússon and Áslaug María Friðriksdóttir) were ditched from the list. In fact only one sitting councillor will be allowed to run for reelection, so the board wants a clean slate. Kjartan Magnússon was later hired as "advisor" for Eyþór, so a deal was made.

No less than six of the ten top names on their list are supporters of Foreign Minister and IP Crown Prince Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, while most of the losers are loyal to party chairman Bjarni Benediktsson loyalists, so this could be the prelude to a leadership challenge from Guðlaugur Þór if his guys win control of the capital. Bjarni Ben better hope the left keeps control of Reykjavík.

The obvious problem is that the right wing Guðlaugur Þór belongs to is even more "corporate" than the moderate Bjarni Ben wing, which makes it hard to win Reykjavík, though far from impossible.

[Deleted]

From Bright Future to Bleak Future

The municipal elections will be make or break for one particular party, the small Social Liberal Bright Future.

Its main origin lies in the Best Party. They actually did a really good job at running Reykjavík, but Jón Gnarr isn't a politician and he stepped down in 2014. The ones in the party who wanted to continue to play politics formed Bright Future (a name that was intended as an ironic reference to the sort of name an advertising company would give a generic party, but the irony turned out to be quite cruel as the party is now facing a very bleak future).

They had a good municipal election in 2014 and might survive if they can hang on to a decent number of councillors, but right now that looks highly unlike. They gave up on Akureyri after their sole councillor defected to a local list; and polled so badly in Reykjavík that they decided to withdraw after an ungainly intermezzo where their new chairman Björt Ólafsdóttir declined to run once she saw the first dismal polls, and Michigan born campsite owner Nicole Leigh Mosty was nominated as their sacrificial lamb lead candidate. Running a well-meaning, but bland Midwesterner who speaks somewhat broken Icelandic was unlikely to save them and in the end they probably realized that solution was worse than abstaining.

In über-affluent Garðabær they are running in an electoral alliance with LG, SDA, and the other Liberal party in Icelandic politics, the Reform Party. In Kópavogur, where they got the Deputy Mayor, they are in alliance with Reform. Besides those two they are running solo in Hafnarfjörður.

So they are runnig in the three big suburbs plus Hveragerði (which is in the South constituency, but only 45 km from Reykjavík and de facto a satellite/dormitory town). It doesn't look like they will run anywhere else outside of the capital region, and they haven't declared in two of the six "urban" (not counting 200+ Kjósarhreppur) municipalities in the capital region either: Mosfellsbær and Seltjarnarnes (both wealthy areas, especially the latter which is where the CEOs live if they aren't living in Garðabær).

[Deleted]

Twelve parties have declared they are running. Apart from the eight in the Althing and the two far right outfits mentioned above, two far left parties have entered the fray.

The champions of the working class

The first is the People's Front of Iceland, a 2013 breakaway from LG led by former Maoist, carpenter, baryton singer and all-round eccentric Þorvaldur Þorvaldsson, commonly known as Albaníu-Valdi due to his fondness for Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour of Albania. They got 0.4% in 2014 and are running again (one day the downtrodden masses will see the light).

This time they are facing competition from the Icelandic Socialist Party founded by Gunnar Smári Egilsson, a rather unlikely champion of the working class. He is a serial entrepreneur in the small Icelandic media business with a string of failed projects behind him. His latest venture was the thrice weekly paper Fréttatíminn, which should challenge Fréttablaðið as the biggest free of charge paper. After its bankruptcy last year the employees felt cheated and deliberately kept in the dark.

Gunnar Smári's conversion to Socialism is quite recent and back in 2003 he described his political views thusly:

“I am a pitch-black right winger. I am far more right wing than the Independence Party and (their youth org) Heimdallur. I have no faith in the state meddling in business and the nanny state mentality expressed in legislating about the smallest aspects of human life. I think we have moved incredibly far towards giving the state all control and power over our lives”.

As the reason the Socialists are running Gunnar Smári says that LG and SDA no longer represents the interests of the working man, and describes them as “former workers parties that the educated middle class has taken over and therefore the workers do not succeed in these parties. If you look at their policies the goal is always a fun life and that Reykjavík should be cool and everything is adjusted to suit well-paid people with high self-confidence. At the same time as the working class needs to rely on unity to be able to fight for its self-evident goals.”

Despite Gunnar Smári's dubious credentials as a left winger the People's Front have been quite keen on working with the Socialists and even previously allowed double membership of the two parties, but Þorvaldur claims the leadership of the Socialists had answered his attempts to form an electoral alliance with "personal insinuations and nastiness” and had “spread prejudies about the chairman of the Front.”

The small citizens' moment descended Dawn, which aren't running in the elections and look moribund, have also declined to ally with the People's Front.

[Deleted]

For a Christian Nordic nation

The absurd infighting of the Icelandic National Front and the breakaway Freedom Party is one of the more entertaining aspects of Icelandic politics and they are both gunning for the bigot vote.

In early 2014 the Progress Party polled at 2% in Reykjavík and looked set to lose their sole councillor. They were saved by recruiting lawyer Sveinbjörg B. Sveinbjörnsdóttir, who ran an anti-Muslim campaign rallying against the allocation of a plot for a mosque to the largest Islamic congregation (there is a rule in Iceland that every religious community has a right to be allocated a plot for a place to worship by the municipality if they have the funds to build on it). She secured 10.7% and two seats, which was their best result in ages (since the 60s IIRC), but has since left the party, as has their other councillor (who joined the Centre Party), and after losing its right wing (i.e. the Centre Party) the now fairly liberal Progress Party isn't going anywhere near Islamophobia, and the Centre Party also looks set to stay away from Muslim bashing, this leaves the right (wing) field wide open, and both of Iceland's tiny rival far right groups are getting ready to enter the race.

The Icelandic National Front was formed in 2016 by Helgi Helgason, who led what was left of the faux-Green, Libertarian anti-immigration party the Right Greens (an attempt to copy the Norwegian Progress Party with nature conservation as a gimmick - the name being a pun on the Left Greens) after its founder financier and tax dodger Guðmundur Franklín Jónsson had started a new live as hotellier on the island of Bornholm in Denmark. The party has had a troublesome existence with absurd factionalism and a constant stream of accusations about rival factions being involved in organized gambling, trafficking prostitutes etc.

In the 2016 Althing elections the party failed to run in Greater Reykjavík because their two lead candidates defected a few days before the deadline to hand in signatures taking their lists for the three capital area constituencies with them. The two subsequently founded the Freedom Party (Austrian inspiration perhaps..) in June last year. One of the founders, ardent Icelandic nationalist and historian Gústaf Níelsson, then moved to Spain loudly exclaiming how much nicer everything was in the sun and how shitty Iceland had become, though he is still on their board. His partner Gunnlaugur Ingvarsson then took over the leadership and is now their top candidate for the city council. They speak a bit more about the Christian heritage of Iceland and SoCon issues (the freedom thing is for good Christian folks only..), but otherwise have a platform that is indistinguishable from The Front.

The Icelandic National Front failed to run in the 2017 Althing election after a number of fraudulent signatures had been revealed on their lists (which they withdrew to avoid a police investigation). Party founder Helgi Helgason, who is unusually incompetent even by the standards of far right micro parties, has now been demoted to deputy leader and the party is running on a four point platform:

- Getting back the land allocated to Félag múslima á Íslandi for the mosque.
- Abolishing the annual Gay Pride parade.
- Stopping the densification of central Reykjavík and building on the outskirts of the city instead.
- Ditching the city line plan (the BRT system).

So the IP platform + a mix of Islamophobia and homophobia. The Freedom Party looks set to run on the same four issues, but will likely have to come up with at least one gimmick to differentiate themselves.

[Deleted]

A recent Fréttablaðið poll on the BRT system has 2:1 in favour, but still many undecided and a high share of disinterested.

Yes 42%
No 21%
Neither for or against 21%
Undecided 13%
Declined to answer 4%

[johnloony]

I like the descriptions of all these micro-parties and their weird leaders and personalities. It's almost as if Iceland is pretending to the rest of the world to be a calm tranquil bit of Scandinavia, full of mountains and lakes, but under the surface is actually a dysfunctional local authority in a relatively deprived area, with multiple factions of independent councillors, like Stoke or Anglesey.

[Devil Wincarnate]

Mar 16, 2018 4:32:06 GMT johnloony said:

I like the descriptions of all these micro-parties and their weird leaders and personalities. It's almost as if Iceland is pretending to the rest of the world to be a calm tranquil bit of Scandinavia, full of mountains and lakes, but under the surface is actually a dysfunctional local authority in a relatively deprived area, with multiple factions of independent councillors, like Stoke or Anglesey.

It's a fabulous place to visit.  It feels like a quarter Europe, a quarter North America, and half entirely doing its own thing.  

[Deleted]

Icelandic municipalities are run by a city manager (borgarstjóri) in Reykjavík, town manager (bæjarstjóri) in all other municipalities which include a town, or municipal manager (hreppstjóri) if its a purely rural municipality; the former two usually translated as mayor in English and the latter as municipal manager, but that distinction is rather arbitrary as stjóri means manager or leader. The manager is a politician in the larger municipalities and a hired administrator in the smaller ones (incl. small towns), where its a part time job in the smallest. If the manager is an administrator the chairman of the council acts as the political leader. 

There are 74 municipalities, which will be reduced to 73 after the elections. There is no tradition for forced mergers of municipalities and its not done unless a municipality has less than 50 inhabitants for three years in a row, as a result some very small ones survive. There are seven municipalities with less than 100 inhabitants, and four of these are in the 45-60 interval. Its not these micro municipalities in isolated rural areas that merge - as the locals have long since taken a conscious decision to accept a lower service level as the price for keeping their independence - but the ones in the 500-1500 range.

IP is the dominant municipal party with 12 managers/mayors, with SDA as the main challengers in most towns.

PP is not nearly as strong as one would expect as local lists and independents dominate in most rural municipalities and they only have 3 managers, SDA have the mayor of Reykjavík and a local list descended from the post-crash citizens movement have the mayor of Akureyri. 

LG is the weakest of the four “old” parties in municipal politics due to having its main strength in Reykjavík (where SDA dominate as the heir to the Reykjavík List), in Akureyri (where many of their natural supporters vote for the City List), and in rural areas in the north where Indies and local lists dominate. In general their voters often prefer grassroots based local lists in order to couple together a non-IP majority.

Centre, Reform and the People's Party have been founded since the last election and have almost no councillors (Centre have a few defectors). 

I have inluded the fourteen largest municipalities in my list, making a rather arbitrary cut-off below Ísafjördur in the Westfiords, which unlike some of the others is a proper little town with some of the oldest buildings in Iceland (from the late 18th century) and was the third largest town at the turn of the 20th century, the left dominated Í-List currently rule the town.

Apart from Reykjavík, Akureyri and Ísafjördur the eleven others are: 

The two big Reykjavík suburbs Kópavogur and Hafnarfjörður, both with a diverse population and in the case of Hafnarfjörður also a left wing tradition; the three smaller and more upscale suburbs Mosfellsbær (upper middle class), Garðabær (some upper middle class, but also CEOs and other people with serious money), and affluent Seltjarnes, which is the municipality from which Reykjavík was cut out in 1875 and Kópavogur in 1948. Many families from the Seltjarnes peninsula owned land in the Reykjavík area (among them the ancestors of Bjarni Benediktsson), which made them part of the economic elite.

Outside the capital area there are Reykjanesbær with the twin towns Keflavík & Njarðvík and the student campus and start-ups on the old base area; the industrial town of Selfoss, which despite its proximity to Reykjavik is rather independent of the capital; and the dynamic west coast town of Akranes. The Vestmanna Islands are traditionally the strongest IP stronghold in the country with the entire oppsition united in the Island List , but the local IP branch is split this time and there will be several lists.

Leaving the SW we get to the northern PP stronghold Skagafjörður; home to the richest and most influential co-op in Iceland, the Kaupfélag Skagfirðinga (KS) which picked up many of the pieces after the Federation of Icelandic Cooperative Societies (SÍS) collapsed in 1992 due to a failed attempt of dominating shipping (before that the largest private employer in the country), and is said to “own” PP (no doubt hyperbole, but their CEO through 30 years Þórólfur Gíslason is the strongest powerbroker in the party and the new Minister of Social Affairs Ásmundur Einar Daðason is on their board).

The last one is Fjallabyggð on the East Coast, which is composed of three large 1000-1500 people villages and only included here because they combined with a bit of rural hinterland happen to make up the 10th biggest municipality. PP is a bit weaker than one would assume given the region, even taking the local list into consideration.

2014 results:

Reykjavík

SDA 5
IP 4
BF 2
PP & Friends of the Airport 2
LG 1
Pirates 1
People's Front of Iceland 0
Dawn 0
————
Total 15

Kópavogur (suburb)

IP 5
SDA 2
BF 2
PP 1
LG & Socialists 1
Pirates 0
Dawn & Reformists 0
Second Best Party & Friends of the Swimming Pool 0
————
Total 11

Hafnarfjörður (suburb)

IP 5
SDA 3
BF 2
LG 1
PP 0
Pirates 0

Akureyri

IP 3
PP 2
City List 2
SDA 2
BF 1
LG 1
————
Total 11

Reykjanesbær (Keflavík)

IP 4
Liberal Power 2
SDA & Independents 2
Direct Way 2
PP 1
Pirates 0
————
Total 11

Garðabær (suburb)

IP 7
BF 2
The Townspeople 1
SDA & Independents 1
PP 0
————
Total 11

Mosfellsbær (suburb)

IP 5
SDA 2
LG 1
Residents Movement 1
PP 0
————
Total 9

Árborg (Selfoss)

IP 5
SDA 2
PP 1
BF 1
LG 0
————
Total 9

Akranes

IP 5
SDA 2
PP 1
BF 1
LG 0
————
Total 9

Seltjarnarnes (suburb)

IP 4
SDA 2
Nes List 1
PP 0
Independents 0
————
Total 7

Fjallabyggð

IP 2
SDA 2
Fjallabyggð List 2
PP 1
————
Total 7

Ísafjörður

Í-List 5
IP 3
PP 1
————
Total 9

Skagafjörður

PP 5
IP 2
LG 1
Skagafjörður List 1
————
Total 9

Vestmanna Islands

IP 5
Island List 2
————
Total 7

[Deleted]

New Gallup poll for Reykjavík with numbers from their February poll in brackets. LG lose three points to SDA, so the voters are coalescing around the mayor party. LG were at 20.8% in June last year, so it would be a big disappointment if they finish on half of that. Centre are three times as big after getting a former minister Vigdís Hauksdóttir to head their list.

Coalition: 13
SDA 29.9 (+4.2) 8
Pirates 13.0 (-0.3) 3
LG 10.3 (-3.0) 2

Opposition: 8
IP 29.0 (-0.1) 8
PP 2.9 (nc) 0

New parties: 2
Reform 6.1 (-0.3) 1
Centre 4.0 (+2.9) 1
People's Party 3.1 (-1.7) 0

www.vb.is/frettir/ny-konnun-meirihlutinn-heldur/145684/

[East Anglian Lefty]

I take it that the franchise is the same as for national elections? Makes a big difference, given how many foreigners there are living in Reykjavík these days.

[Deleted]

Mar 18, 2018 12:10:54 GMT East Anglian Lefty said:

I take it that the franchise is the same as for national elections? Makes a big difference, given how many foreigners there are living in Reykjavík these days.

No, its somewhat broader.

Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish nationals who have had a legal domicile in Iceland for more than 3 consecutive years before election day have the right to vote, as have other foreign nationals who have had a legal domicile in Iceland for more than 5 consecutive years before election day. So the Poles, Filipinos, Lithuanians etc. can vote and campaign material is distributed in English and Polish (but e.g. LG do that for Althing elections as well). 

Like in Althing elections Danish citizens that resided in Iceland at any point between 6/3 1936 and 6/3 1946 also have the right to vote, but that is for natural reasons a rapidly shrinking group.

[Deleted]

It looks like Bright Future and Reform have more or less taken over the City List in Akureyri; a local list founded in 1998 that got absolute majority in 2010 boosted by Citizen Movement activists, but only retained seats in 2014, yet still has the mayor (who isn't on the Council).

Halla Björk Reynisdóttir from BF tops the list and the chairman of Reform in Akureyri Hildur Betty Kristjánsdóttir is no. 3. 

Their two current councillors Matthías Rögnvaldsson and Silja Dögg Baldursdóttir are both placed so far down the list they have no chance of getting elected.

If the two parties ever merge to one Liberal party the City List may join them. Though I suppose Reform will simply wait and let BF gradually dissolve and then pick up the pieces.  

[Deleted]

In Skagafjörður the PP majority has made a "secret" deal with a previously unknown company called Syndarveruleiki ehf. about running a virtual reality based viking and saga era museum in the minicipalities main town Sauðárkrókur.

The company will get free housing for fifteen years, a 50% rent subsidy for another 15, the wages of two full-time employees paid for ten years plus free renovation of the building and surrounding area incl.  a new parking lot. In return the municipality gets 10% of the shares in the new museum and a hope of more tourist jobs.  

The municipal manager Stefán Vagn Vagnsson has so far refused to say who are behind the company, or reveal any details about the deal, but investigative website/magazine Stundin got hold of the contract and has publicized it.

The property that will house the new museum is acquired through a property swop with the Kaupfélag Skagfirðinga co-op (owners of most of the town and largest local employer by far, which also controls the local PP branch). The intention was that the local history museum Byggðasafn Skagfirðinga should move in, but its now "homeless" and its artefacts moved to a depot, while the director has quit in protest (can't really blame her). 

Nothing dodgy about any of this, of course. 

LG have criticized the secrecy and want an analysis of the consequences of binding the municipality for that long and the total costs. But as this is Skagafjörður they are unlikely to get it.

The big historical event up there is the battle at Örlygsstaðir in 1238 during the Sturlunga era civil war where Sighvatur Sturluson (brother of Snorri Sturluson) and his son Sturla Sighvatsson lost to an alliance of the Ásbirningar and the Haukdælir clans led by Kolbeinn ungi and Gissur Þorvaldsson. Both Sighvatur and his son died in the battle.

[Devil Wincarnate]

I've never even heard of  Sauðárkrókur!  Not exactly a likely tourist destination from the look of it.  You'd have to go quite a way off the Ring Road.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2018 19:30:30 GMT Devil Wincarnate said:

I've never even heard of  Sauðárkrókur!  Not exactly a likely tourist destination from the look of it.  You'd have to go quite a way off the Ring Road.

Its only a place you have heard of if you have a nerdy interest in Icelandic politics. Its one claim to fame is having the HQ of the Kaupfélag Skagfirðinga and the unlikely fact that this coop from a remote fishing village in the NW ended up being the most important powerbroker in PP.