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Poll
Question: Will Iceland and Norway ever join the EU?
#1
Iceland, but not Norway
 
#2
Norway, but not Iceland
 
#3
Both
 
#4
None of them
 
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Partisan results

Total Voters: 178

Author Topic: The Great Nordic Thread  (Read 201215 times)
politicus
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« Reply #50 on: January 30, 2014, 04:08:33 PM »
« edited: January 30, 2014, 04:18:00 PM by politicus »


It will of course also be interesting to see who the new SF leader will be. Will one of the current ministers want to be a leader of a party where the members have been opposed to many of the government's decisions and where a new government participation looks unlikely for a long time? Will the members choose a new left-leaning backbecher, like Annette Vilhelmsen, after her less than impressive period as a leader?

Its worth noticing that ex deputy chairman Peter Westermann, who is a left winger, is hardly a backbencher anymore - but he is probably too young (late 20s).

Almost all possible candidates have passed on the leadership. Only two serious contenders remain. Ex Minister of Taxes Jonas Dahl,who is a youngish centrist without affiliation to any of the wings and ex Minister of Transport Pia Olsen Dyhr (42) from the Green right wing (SPP has - or had - two right wings, one "workerite" quasi-SD and one quasi-social liberal Green! But the top "workerites" have almost entirely left the party). None of them have declared their candidacy yet.
Pia Olsen Dyhr is uncharismatic and lost a leadership election to former chairman Villy Søvndahl (then a leftist, but later founder of the workerite wing) back in 2005 and the Greens are (and has always been) a minority within the party, but now may be her chance for lack of good alternatives.
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politicus
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« Reply #51 on: January 30, 2014, 04:59:20 PM »
« Edited: January 30, 2014, 05:07:34 PM by politicus »

With large crowds of protesters outside parliament demanding the governments resignation and "real democracy" the Greenlandic government survived its first major test after the recent scandals as the new Minister of Fishing was approved with a comfortable 18-13 majority, but not without major verbal infighting and allegations of camaraderie and nepotism + misinforming and misleading the people and the parliament. Former PM Hans Enoksen has demanded Deputy Chairman of Naalakkersuisut (ie Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister of Transportation Steen Lynge's resignation due to Lynge lying about freight prices from the government controlled sea carrier Royal Arctic Line. He was backed by IA and the Democrats from the old opposition demanding immediate government resignation. The new Minister of Fishing Finn Karlsen was accused of having "gambled with Greenlands natural resources" by ignoring warnings from biologists and allowing overfishing, while in office last time.

Meanwhile the chairman of the Democrats Jens B. Frederiksen is under increasing pressure to resign because he has taken on a cushy job as Deputy Managing Director for the Canadian mining cooperation True North Gems Greenland.  He said that he would still be chairman of his party  "by the end of the week", but declined to answer when reporters asked him whether he would also still be leader "by the end of the month". So, bye, bye Jensi... (I guess, but you never know in Greenland).

Prime Minister Aleqa Hammond has some time to gather her Siumut-loyalist troops and stabilize the situation as the parliament Inatsisartut doesn't regather until the 18th of March.
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politicus
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« Reply #52 on: January 30, 2014, 05:28:01 PM »

Interesting fact: According to a poll published by DR 76% of centre-right voters are against the sale of DONG shares so Goldman-Sachs. So its generally unpopular in the Danish population, not just among leftists.
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politicus
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« Reply #53 on: January 31, 2014, 09:25:54 AM »

SPP Deputy Chairman Mette Touborg has stepped down and since the other chairman Peter Westermann has already resigned the party is now de facto leaderless.

Former chairman of the aid agency Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke Trine Pertou Mach is a possible contender for the leadership position. She is a solid left winger and has more charisma than the other two.

Observers generally believe that Pia Olsen Dyhr is too tainted by the failure of the government project. So it looks like either a quiet and somewhat boring compromise candidate with continued support for most of the governments policies or a sharp turn to the left trying to regain voters from the Red Green Alliance.

 
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politicus
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« Reply #54 on: February 01, 2014, 04:57:19 PM »

Kind of sad Auken chose to join the Social Liberals it would have been far more interesting if she teamed up with Uffe Elbæks The Alternative, which looks like it could evolve into something resembling the German Greens. But its obviously a safer career move.

The "green" wing in their parliament group is now reduced to ex-chairman candidate from the 90s 60+ Steen Gade, a bitchy theologian from Northern Jutland and Pia Olsen Dyhr, who has not yet declared her candidacy for the chairmanship, but said she will in all likelyhood leave the party if the left wing wins. So it looks like the party will fragment further.
Most pundits and political journalists think Olsen Dyhr will run and win, but I think the left wing will win - they got far more grassroot support and are the core of the party. Especially if Pertou  Mach runs. Choosing Jonas Dahl as a compromise candidate looks increasingly unlikely because the warring fractions don't seem to be interested in a compromise.

It might also be best for SPP to get a clear leftist platform and go back to basics, after all voters generally expect the chairman of a party named the Socialist Peoples Party to be a, ya know, socialist.
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politicus
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« Reply #55 on: February 01, 2014, 05:01:42 PM »
« Edited: February 01, 2014, 05:04:15 PM by politicus »

Ex Greenlandic Premier and Siumut deserter Hans Enoksen got his new Partii Naleraq approved by the election board today after getting the necessary 964 signatures. So he is now ready to challenge his successor and former boss Aleqa Hammond in the next election.
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politicus
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« Reply #56 on: February 01, 2014, 05:58:45 PM »
« Edited: February 01, 2014, 06:16:20 PM by politicus »

Why is there such poor "party loyalty" amongst Danish politicians? Seems like relatively prominent ones switch between the various parties in Folketinget all the time. That kind of stuff hardly ever happens elsewhere in Scandinavia.

I don't thing it happens that often. I cant remember many prominent or semi-prominent ones outside of the SPP. Unless you count Pia Kjærsgaard leaving the dying Progressive Party back in 1995, but that was a split and not a jump  and Nasser Khader and Anders Samuelsens New Alliance, which was also a split more than a jump. Of course Khader then jumped to the Conservatives and became a bit of a joke.

Splits are more popular because we have 2% threshold, so its easier than in other Nordic countries.

Karen Jespersen, ex minister, left SD for the Liberals, but with her staunch anti-immigration/anti-Islam views she was clearly out of sync with her old party.

Other have been from dying or hopeless parties:

Tove Videbæk/Bodil Konbek, the two rivals from each wing of the Christian Democracts joining SD and Conservatives and Tom Behnke going from the dying Progressive Party to the Conservatives.

SPP is a special case. The party is in a process of disintegration. And it has moved very far away from its roots and in the process attracted some people who are just not at home in a traditional socialist party. Most of the jumpers are young people attracted to the success of folksy ex-leader Villy Søvndahl back when he was popular in 2008-10. Søvndahl moved the party far to the right on immigration and law & order and in 2009 the party chose a programme not even mentioning socialism. Now that the party is no longer popular and it looks like its going back to its red roots, they have no reason to stay.

Found this quote:

"Der er ingen tvivl om, at det er blevet lettere at skifte parti for både politisk engagerede mennesker og for folkevalgte. Politik er i dag for mange i højere grad blevet et værktøj til at fremme et mål, end det er en kulturbestemt indstilling til tilværelsen.”

This trend with a shift from culture based world view to a means to an end may be slighly more significant in Denmark. But still I should think it was a general trend.

tl;dr: apart from SPP disintegrating there aren't that many IMO and most leave to start new parties, trying to get their politics represented + we have a 2 threshold, not 4% Wink

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politicus
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« Reply #57 on: February 01, 2014, 06:29:24 PM »

New Megafon poll has DPP in 2nd place ahead of SD after the unpopular DONG-sale.


SD: 18,8 pct. (31. jan.) - 21,7 pct (22. jan.) - 24,8 pct. (2011)
Social Liberals: 7,4 pct. (31. jan.) - 6,6 pct. (22. jan.) - 9,5 pct. (2011)
Conservatives: 4,5 pct. (31. jan.) - 4,6 pct. (22. jan.) - 4,9 pct. (2011)
SPP: 4,5 pct. (31. jan.) - 5,6 pct. (22. jan.) - 9,2 pct. (2011)
Liberal Alliance: 5,1 pct. (31. jan.) - 5,2 pct. (22. jan.) - 5,0 pct. (2011)
Christian Democrats: 0,4 pct. (31. jan.) - 0,6 pct. (22. jan.) - 0,8 pct. (2011)
DPP: 20,1 pct. (31. jan.) - 16,1 pct. (22. jan.) - 12,3 pct. (2011)
Liberals: 26,7 pct. (31. jan.) - 27,5 pct. (22. jan.) - 26,7 pct. (2011)
Red Green Alliance: 12,2 pct. (31. jan.) - 11,6 pct. (22. jan.) - 6,7 pct. (2011)
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politicus
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« Reply #58 on: February 02, 2014, 01:34:50 PM »

Kind of sad Auken chose to join the Social Liberals it would have been far more interesting if she teamed up with Uffe Elbæks The Alternative, which looks like it could evolve into something resembling the German Greens. But its obviously a safer career move.

Not to insult anybody, but I think everyone get why she didn't embraced the Alternative, it honestly it look at best like something like Ny Alliance, just with less clear politic and without a widely popular front man, in fact it doesn't even seem to have politic yet, just meta-politic of bringing something new to Danish politics. As for worst case it simply seem to be Retsforbundet anno 2014. While it may make a niche for itself in Danish politics, weirded thing have been seen, I think they will go the same way as most new parties in Danish politics.

Ida Auken clearly became Social Liberal because she wanted to have influence on Danish politics, and there the Social Liberals wasn't a bad choice.

All true and fairly obvious. Like I have stated earlier the "green" wing of SPP is already quasi-Social Liberal too begin with, so its no surprise that a career girl like her join them. If she had had another family background, she would likely have gone that road to begin with.

All I was saying that it would have been more interesting if she had had the guts to try develop The Alternative into something resembling the German Greens. I think The Alternative is a far more solid project than New Alliance since its based upon the idea that increased quality of life should be achieved without using more of scarce resources. This idea takes you in a particular direction and makes you choose particular solutions. like a steady state economy, and is therefore different than the wishy-washy centrism and "humanism" of New Alliance.

I agree that it might get the faith of Retsforbundet (which was not a bad party in my opinion), since idea based politics that doesnt fit nicely into the traditional left-right axis is a hard game to succeed in.

Still Retsforbundet was basically torn between liberalistic principles and the anti-speculation/communal land ownership, and later green and anti-EU, elements that appealed to leftists. I think this crowd will be more homogenous, which will help them.

Anyway: New inspiration is badly needed in the current situation where most traditional parties have ran out of fresh ideas regarding societys fundamental problems and are basically just letting the central administration develop "pragmatic" solutions.
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politicus
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« Reply #59 on: February 02, 2014, 01:49:54 PM »
« Edited: February 03, 2014, 09:35:11 AM by politicus »

New ministers:

Social Liberals:

Martin Lidegaard, moves from Minister of Climate to the Ministry of Foregin Ministry which gets the European affairs back. They have given up on the silly idea of splitting foreign affairs in 4 parts and its now down to 2 with international trade going to the Ministry of Development.

Morten Østergaard, no. 2 in the Social Liberals hierarchy, moves from Research and Universities to Ministry of Taxes, making him a part of economic policy development and becomes one of the four members of the powerfull Economic Committee.

EU-parliamentarian Sofie Carsten Nielsen new Minister of Education and Research.

Rasmus Helveg Petersen from the Helveg Petersen political dynasty new Minister of Climate and Energy.

Manu Sareen new Minister of Welfare ("Social Minister")

SD:

All rounder Nick Hækkerup is new Minister of Health after Astrid Krag, as expected she didn't get to keep her portfolio despite the party swoop.

Political spokesperson Magnus Heunicke new Minister of Transportation.

Kirsten Brosbøl new minister of the Environment.

Mogens Jensen, best known as a great Nyrup Rasmussen impersonater is new Minister of Development and Trade.

The government is down from 22 to 20 ministers - 13 SDs and 7 Social Liberals.





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politicus
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« Reply #60 on: February 04, 2014, 05:42:08 AM »
« Edited: February 04, 2014, 09:49:30 AM by politicus »

Well, he is about to retire after the next election to run his publishing company, but still: good luck with the former Comrade in Chief SD!

Edit: I see he sold the company in December, so retirement I guess.
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politicus
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« Reply #61 on: February 07, 2014, 01:54:04 PM »
« Edited: February 07, 2014, 07:53:46 PM by politicus »

All remaining 12 members of SPPs parliamentary group backs former Minister of Transport Pia Olsen Dyhr from the party's "green" right wing as new chairman of the SPP. So it looks like a shoe in for Olsen Dyhr who lost a chairmanship election back in 2005. Its a bit surprising that the left wing that has 7 members doesn't want to field an opponent, but all possible candidates have declined.

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« Reply #62 on: February 08, 2014, 08:46:12 AM »
« Edited: February 08, 2014, 10:32:46 AM by politicus »

All remaining 12 members of SPPs parliamentary group backs former minister Pia Olsen Dyhr from the party "green" right wing as new chairman. So it looks like a shoe in for Olsen Dyhr that lost a chairmanship election in 2005. Its a bit surprising that the left wing that has 7 members doesn't want to field an opponent, but all possible candidates has declined.

I really don't see any among them, who would be able to get the chairman post, and even if they did they would have to deal with losing the next election. Dyhr can at least blame the loss next election on others, as she was not the one which negotiated the government deal and didn't create chaos in the party.
 

I think everyone in SPP has already accepted that the next election is lost, so that's not really an issue and Olsen Dyhr is not a person that can get the disillusioned leftists back from the Red Greens.

You are right that there aren't any obvious leadership candidates on the left wing after Pertou Mach declined, but at this stage Olsen Dyhr is fairly isolated in the party. Her only allies in the party top are two 60+ - EU parliamentarian Margrethe Auken (mother of ex Environmental Minister Ida Auken) and Steen Gade (who will likely not run again) + ex group chairman Pernille Vigsø Bagge. Since the party will lose seats she is unlikely to get supporters elected. Before long the left wing will start to undermine her. Some journalist whose name I cant remember called it the Reds Taliban-stategy: Run to the hills and start reconquering every bit of territory until your opponents are only nominally in control, then eliminate them.

Basically I think SSP would be better of going back to their red roots straight away, its what a majority of the grassroots want and its their only chance to regain their position as the largest party on the left wing, which is pretty essential for their long term survival. Otherwise they will be squeezed between SD and the Red Greens and slowly die off.

Playing a sort of sub-John Golding game?

I looked him up, but must admit I didn't get this one. How did the Labour left undermine Golding?
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politicus
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« Reply #63 on: February 10, 2014, 09:42:22 AM »
« Edited: February 13, 2014, 09:48:53 AM by politicus »

Peter Andersen. A 24 year old BA of Education student (and amateur poet and actor) has challenged Pia Olsen Dyhr for the SPP leadership "to get a debate in the party". So even though the entire leadership agreed on Olsen Dyhr the troubled party now has to go through almost a month of campaigning, and the protest vote on Andersen might be embarrassingly high.

EDIT: He didnt get the necesarry signatures to be a candidate. Nobody else declared their candidacy before the deadline this morning and Olsen Dyhr is thereby the new chairman of the troubled party.

In a Voxmeter poll this weekend SPP was down to 2,4%, dangerously close to the threshold. Further infighting could see them fall below it.
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politicus
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« Reply #64 on: February 10, 2014, 12:28:43 PM »
« Edited: February 13, 2014, 07:02:23 PM by politicus »

I looked him up, but must admit I didn't get this one. How did the Labour left undermine Golding?

They didn't: he undermined them (that is, I was thinking of tactics adopted rather than which faction actually uses them). My fault for the confusion: assumed there would be more about his antics on his wiki bio than there is actually is.

Mostly I was thinking of the fact that he persuaded his fellow right-wingers on the NEC to let the Left put whatever they wanted in the 1983 manifesto, so that they copped all the blame for the inevitable electoral horror story. Which they did.

Okay, in that case I think you are right. Since the Reds dont have a credible chairman candidate (at least not one willing to run) among their parliamentarians, they likely think they might as well let the most prominent Green lead the party into the inevitable defeat and then take over and try to rebuild it as a more classical left wing party.

EDIT: Anyway, as of today Pia Olsen Dyhr is the new chairman. She is 42, has a MA in Politcal Science, is chairman of the partys youth organization, ex deputy chairman of a third world development aid organization.
She is the daughter of a cleaning lady and an alkoholized father on early retirement, whom she grew up with. So she has working class and tough upbringing credentials, which on paper makes her a good fit to reconquer some of the lost voters. Still her main interests are: climate, enviromental issues, consumer interests and international cooperation. So greenie. Her husband is a trade union bureaucrat who left SSP for SD together with all the rest of the "workerites", and that might be a problem for her image as well.
 
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« Reply #65 on: March 03, 2014, 07:03:12 PM »

The most recent polling average composed by Berlingske on 2 March (2011 election)

Social Democrats 19.5 % (-5.3 %) 34 seats (-10)
Social Liberals 9.4 % (-0.1%) 17 (0)
Conservatives 4.5 % (-0.4%) 8 (=)
SF 3.8 % (-5.4%) 7 (-9)
Liberal Alliance 5.3 % (+0.3%) 9 (=)
Christian Democrats 0.4 % (-0.4%) 0 (=)
DF 19.2 % (+6.9 %) 34 (+12)
Liberals 27.0 % (+0.3%) 47 (=)
Enhedslisten 10.9 % (+4.2%) 19 (+7)

Left wing 43.6 % (-6.6%) 77 (-12)

Right wing 56.4 % (+6.7 %) 98 (+12)



Calling the Social Liberals left wing is highly inaccurate. The socioeconomic scale is after all still the important one. The genuine left wing is at 14,7% if you add 19,5% SDs that 34,2% left of centre (and thats only if you ignore Bjarne Corydons descrption of SD as a "centre party"). Less than SD polled alone back in 1990. So bad news for the left indeed.
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politicus
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« Reply #66 on: March 05, 2014, 06:58:21 PM »
« Edited: March 05, 2014, 07:01:30 PM by politicus »

Icelands centre-right government is in big trouble after Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson announced that Iceland will withdraw its EU application on February 21. While 2/3 of Icelanders still don't want to join the EU, they do want to vote about the result of their country's long negotiations with Brussels. Both government parties promised a referendum in their election campaign and their decision to ditch that promise has resulted in a major electoral backlash. In a recent Capacent polling IP is at 19% and PP at 13%. Miles away from their huge electoral victory last year. On Saturday 7000 demonstrated against the government on Austarvöllur square in central Reykjavik, the biggest demonstration since the financial crash, and 20% of all Icelandic voters have signed a petition demanding a referendum.
While the government has refused to back down several MPs from the government parties have talked about ending the whole thing with simply putting the negotiations on hold until a new pro-EU majority might want to resume them.

This could potentially be a game changer for Icelands local election on May 31th that otherwise looked quite favorably for IP.

To understand why Icelanders are so mad about this the country's recent history of politicians lying and manipulating during the crash is the main reason.

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« Reply #67 on: March 06, 2014, 09:21:38 AM »
« Edited: March 06, 2014, 09:36:09 AM by politicus »

What happened to the much-discussed example of the Icelandic 'Revolution'? The new constitution has never been adopted right?

No it hasn't. The failure of passing and implementing it was one of the reasons the former centre-left government lost so badly.

Regarding the rest of your question see this thread: https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=171532.0
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« Reply #68 on: March 06, 2014, 04:44:51 PM »
« Edited: March 06, 2014, 04:48:36 PM by politicus »

Iceland government just seems to be an hot potato, burning everyone in it.

True, but the present government has been extremely clumsy handling this.

First Sveinsson ignored the agreement between the parties that the long awaited EU report from the Economic Institute at the University of Iceland should be distributed to all MPs at the same time and gave it to the government MPs first. Then he leaked the content to the two government loyal media Eyjan and Morgunbladid (Icelands largest paper). They then trumpeted the governmet line that the report showed that it would be impossible for Iceland to get any exceptions on farming and fishing and the application process was therefore not worth pursuing any further.
Three days later Sveinsson then withdrew the EU application while accusing the MPs voting for the application back in 2009 for voting against their conscience (which is, believe it or not, unconstitutional in Iceland) and the former Left Green Minister of Finance for lying.

After carefully orchestrating a one sided media presentation Sveinsson then accused the media of one sided anti-government coverage and lack of a serious debate of the report. He then refused to talk to Icelands national broadcaster RUV anymore because they were being mean to him (by asking critical questions and such).

Both government parties then came with rather strange explanations of why exactly their electoral promise of a referendum should not be taken seriously. PP claimed that their unconditional guarantee of a referendum was "only valid if they had entered into a coalition with a pro-EU party" and the IP leader stated that "the promise lost validity after the election since the Indepence Party is against the EU" So "yeah, we made a promise, but it isn't valid anymore because we didn't mean it!".

Around 80% of the Icelandic voters want a referendum, but the fractions in control of both PP and IP at the moment are based on the 20% mainly rural voters who are paranoid that naysayers in Reykjavik will vote yes in a referendum for some unknown reason (because, ya know, townies are weird).

Especially IP is in trouble over this because they have a strong pro-EU wing including the Chamber of Commerce and the employers association. IP leader Bjarni Benediksson was also (at least unofficially) pro-EU and the Euro before he took over the leadership in 2009. But he is a very weak position and doesn't dare to take on the right wing centered around ex Prime Minister and present Morgunbladid editor David Oddsson (one of the main culprits of the financial crash). Also since PP will have difficulty budging on this  issue it could break the coalition if he insists. So this weird crisis where the government wont hold a referendum they could easily win and the voters demand a referendum in order to say no to the question will likely be difficult to resolve.
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« Reply #69 on: March 20, 2014, 09:25:34 AM »
« Edited: March 20, 2014, 09:48:28 AM by politicus »

JGS was mentioned as a serious contender for the NATO job last time around. So its ironic if he gets to be party chairman because Stoltenberg is chosen as GS this time.

Stoltenberg would be an excellent NATO GS. I hope he gets it.
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« Reply #70 on: March 31, 2014, 05:27:13 PM »
« Edited: April 01, 2014, 04:44:25 AM by politicus »

The Icelandic government has launched its grand plan for relieving household debt from the nations troubled home owners by offering discounts for inflation indexed loans. The plan reduces household debt for a total of 80 billion Icelandic kronor and a single household can get a maximum of 4 million kronor/20% reduction.

The promise to reduce household debt was the big selling point for the ruling Progress Party during the election campaign and its leader Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson said at the press conference where he launched the plan that one of the biggest campaign promises an Icelandic politician has ever given "was now fullfilled".

Still, this is a far cry from the 300 billion reduction paid for by foreign creditors he talked about during the election campaign.

Now its 80 billion from a raised banking tax (with no restrictions on how much of it can be passed on to customers) + 70 billion in tax discounts for people saving to buy their own home or reducing their mortgages, which could potentially include up to 100.000 households (as in virtually everybody in a country with 325.000 inhabitants..).

The tax discounts also include non-home owners who start saving for a flat or house to make it easier for young Icelanders to enter the housing market.
 
Still, the government's plan has been criticised by the usual negative types for not including low income groups like pensioners, students and people in council estates + ignoring the added risk of increased inflation and that the money could have been better spent investing in growth and job creation. But haters gonna hate. I am sure this will be a big success.
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« Reply #71 on: March 31, 2014, 06:35:10 PM »
« Edited: April 03, 2014, 08:58:48 AM by politicus »

Former Greenlandic PM Kuupik Kleist has stepped down as leader of the main opposition party the left wing and nationalist IA on his 56th birthsday claiming he is getting too old to be party chairman. This probably leaves the door open for current MP in the Folketing Sara Olsvig (35) or interim chairman Aqqaluaq B. Egede (33) to challenge Aleqa Hammond at the next election.
This clearly increases the governments chance of survival considerably. Its a bit unclear why Kleist steps down now given that the government is down to a 1 seat majority in the Inatsisartut and a premature election is far from unlikely.

EDIT: Kleist has been uninspired as opposition leader so its no great surpise that he quits, its just the timing thats a bit odd.

It seems he wants to finish as a well paid "consultant" using his political connections to make some dough. Of course he calls it being an entrepreneur in the private sector, but the consultant firm he has started with two other old comrades seems to indicate otherwise.

A lot of praise to Kleist in the press from political opponents, which is unusual. But he was clearly the most talented PM Greenland has had.
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« Reply #72 on: April 01, 2014, 02:19:36 PM »

56 is too old? Those crazy Nordics... Inuits.

ftfy

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« Reply #73 on: April 05, 2014, 04:15:19 PM »
« Edited: April 05, 2014, 04:39:50 PM by politicus »

Icelandic voters are mostly negative when asked about whether the governments household debt plan will be beneficial or not according to a poll from MMR.
 
44,5 % thinks the plan will have a positive effect on the economy, 34,7 % that it will be negative and 20,8 % that it will have no effect at all.
PP voters are most enthusiastic with 70,3 % saying it will have a positive effect. IP second with 66,8 %.

Not surprisingly the opposition voters are critical.

Left Greens: 9,2 % positive/ 75 % negative
SDA: 12,9 % positive.
Pirates 13,5 % positive.
Bright Future 19,7 % positive.
 
Male pensioners and rural men are the most positive. Middle aged women from Reykjavik are the most negative.

This is not disastrous for the government as the plan is obviously a big disappointment compared to what was promised. But its worth remembering that the government is polling around 37-38% at the moment, so doing well among government voters isn't going to win elections. Basically the disappointed swing voters have already left.

Latest poll from Capacent Gallup
 
IP 24,4 percent
PP 13,4 percent (lowest in  a Gallup poll in 1,5 years)
Bright Future 17,5 procent
SDA 16,7 percent
Left Greens 12,2 percent
Pirates 9,2 percent
 
Only 37 percent of voters support the government. Down from 42% in the last poll.

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Denmark


« Reply #74 on: April 07, 2014, 01:03:53 PM »

At the latest of the ongoing protest meetings on Austurvöllur against the governments decision to suspend the EU negotiations without holding a referendum publicist Benedikt Jóhannesson from IPs inner circle (and related to party chairman Bjarni Benediktsson) announced his intent to start a new pro-European Conservative party. This could potentially steal voters from not just IP, but also Bright Future and SDA right wingers. Having no pro-EU party on the right side has been a clear advantage for the Icelandic centre-left. A poll showed that 40% of Icelandic voters would "consider voting for such a party" (Icelandic politics is surely weird these days), but I doubt he can get more than 10% if he gets this thing going, still that may be enough.

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