Faroe Islands Parliamentary Election - September 1, 2015

[politicus]

For a moment I thought that the personal vote also played a role in the replacement of MPs who resign.

It does in the sense that the non-elected candidate that got the most votes gets to be the substitute. Rasmussen got the 7th most votes for PP.

Sonja J. made a wriiten commitment to support the government agreement btw. So they have a formal majority behind it again.

[politicus]

Did she say anything on her gay marriage bill?

No. She did leave the party btw.

Regarding Annika Olsen she has said two things about why she left Progress:

1) She was under immense pressure and had even been threatened, so she needed time off with her family.

2) She had second thoughts about supporting a government from the side her voters voted against. Whether or not those "second thoughts" came before or after someone had threatened her, she didn't say.

Gay marriage was according to Greenlandic AG Sermitsiaq, which is generally dependable on Faroese stuff, a big factor in her leaving PP, so even if she hasn't declared she must be pro (which is also the only logical thing).

Progress has nominated Ruth Vang, Michelsens substitute as MP, for the chairmanship in the Finance Committee if Olsen doesn't return, but there are no plans to rearrange chairmanships if Olsen stays as an independent - which is a bit weird given the importance of the post, but presumably they like her to stay friendly - even if she is officially "opposition" now.

A faroese friend of mine pointed out that Edmund Joensen is actually listed as an LGBT-hero (no less) on LGBT Føroyars website for eliminating the use of the derogatory term "kynsvillingur" (gender disturbed) in parliament when he has Speaker and changing the public discourse about homosexuality as PM, plus being among the advocates that secured gays got covered by the anti-discrimination paragraph in the penal code. So even if he is a 71 year old settlement politician he is at least not a homophobe and he may have declined to declare because he is seriously thinking about it despite his upbringing and background.  
I only had my impression about him being anti-gay from that radio debate with the youth politicians where the Young Unionist guy mentioned him as anti-gay marriage, but its probably more complicated.

[politicus]

Checked Sonja J.s facebook and she writes she has already submitted it along with "several other co-sponsors", but no names.

Also, one comment mentioned the obvious: They already voted on a gay marriage bill in 2014, which had been through committee and thoroughly debated, so they can just reuse it. It still has to go through all steps, but some will likely be a formality. It is not put on the calendar yet, but presumably it will soon.

[politicus]

Why would not SD want it as part of the agreement?

Because they were divided and a minority is against it (and other would prefer not having to defend it to their voters as government policy). They also promised to make it a "conscience vote" during the campaign.

[politicus]

When you say it is not put in the calendar, you mean the calendar of the Lagting?

Yeah (Løgting in Faroese and English, Lagting is the Danish version).

[politicus]

The majority in favor seems undisputable.

Well, its 15-12 with 6 unknown. Not really "indisputable", but the odds are good.

[politicus]

Is there already the calendar?

Nothing on it yet:
http://www.logting.fo/schedules/view.gebs?menuChanged=57

[politicus]

Maybe it is scheduled for October.

You can just move the calendar forward - there is nothing noted for October yet.

[politicus]

Sonja J. has submitted the marriage equality proposal today together with the equality spokespersons from the three government parties: Bjørt Samuelsen (Republic), Kristianna Winther Poulsen (SD) and Hanna Jensen (Progress). So no high profile opposition figures on board.

Apparently I misread her facebook info (it was in Faroese after all), maybe she just wrote she intended to do it. Anyway, its done now.

[politicus]

I found this  news but do not know what is about, as I cannot read faroese, maybe you can guess it.

It says something about first october?

http://kvf.fo/greinar/2015/09/24/uppskot-broyta-hjunabandslogina-latid-tinginum#.VgQTwtLtmko

It says its the same proposal Bjørt Samuelsen, Rigmor Dam and Poul Michelsen presented in the last election term and that the parliamentary secretariat (Løgtingsskrivstovan) will now look into the legal consequences/do a legal evaluation (or something to that effect) and expects to present it before the Løgting early in next month (= the Speaker will announce it and members get a copy).

[politicus]

Party strength


National:

People's Party 18,9      
Union 18,7   
Social Democrats 25,1   
Home Rule 4,1   
Republic 20,7   
Progress 7,0   
Centre 5,5


Capital area:
      
PP 13,5      
Union 14,4      
SD 27,0
HR 2,0   
Republic 25,8   
Progress 11,8   
Centre 5,5


Rest of Streymoy:

PP 15,8      
Union 17,3      
SD 27,6   
HR 3,0      
Republic 22,8   
Progress 9,0   
Centre 4,5


Eysturoy:

PP 18,5      
Union 27,2   
SD 18,5      
HR 7,4      
Republic 16,5      
Progress 5,1      
Centre 6,8


Klaksvík:   

PP 32,4      
Union 15,6      
SD 22,0      
HR 8,6      
Republic 14,2   
Progress 2,1   
Centre 5,2


Rest of Nordoyar:   

PP 38,2
Union 12,4      
SD 18,1      
HR 5,8   
Republic 15,3      
Progress 2,9      
Centre 7,4


Vágar incl. Mykines:      

PP 26,6   
Union 23,5      
SD 22,5   
HR 2,9   
Republic 16,2   
Progress 3,2      
Centre 5,2


Sandoy incl. Skuvoy:      

PP 26,9      
Union 25,9      
SD 11,9      
HR 0,8      
Republic 29,3      
Progress 2,1   
Centre 3,2


Suðuroy:   

PP 18,1      
Union 15,4      
SD 42,7      
HR 0,9      
Republic 18,4   
Progress 0,8   
Centre 3,7


The People's Party
The party is clearly strongest on the Northern Isles, but somewhat weaker in Klaksvik than in the settlements. Vagar and Sandoy is about 20% above the national average, while Suduroy and Eysturoy are very close to the national result. PP is significantly weaker on Streymoy than in the rest of the country with the Torshavn area as the worst. Explanation: fishing interests, but it doesn't explain all the differences. Streymoy is "stuck in the middle" and further from the open sea than the other islands and it hasn't got as many natural harbours so it has a relatively smaller ocean going fishing fleet.

Union Party
Remains strongest in its traditional stronghold Eysturoy with about 1.5 times the national average, Sandoy and Vagar are also strong areas for the party, Sandoy due to SD deserter Gerhard Lognberg: Suduroy, Klaksvik and the villages on Streymoy are at a level around 15-20% below average, Torshavn is even weaker than the rest of Streymoy, while the harcore separatist settlements on Nordoyar are the party's poorest region with less than 2/3 of the national average.

The Social Democrats
The party's undisputed stronghold is still “the cradle of the Faroese labour movement” Suduroy, where it got 60% more support than the national average. It is slightly above average on Streymoy (approximately equally strong in the the town and settlements), Klaksvik and Vagar are about 10% below average, while conservative Eysturoy and the likewise conservative settlements on the Northern Isles are markedly weaker, their weakest result is on Sandoy, where SD gets less than half of the national result due to a popular local hero Republican attracting heaps of leftist voters and defector Gerhard Lognberg attracting some moderates leftists to UP.

Republic
The party's best results is Sandoy which is c. 45% above the average. Second best is the captal area, where it gets a quarter more than average, while the rest of Streymoy is also more than 10% above average. Suduroy is about 10% below due to leftists down there prefering SD, while Eysturoy, Vagar and the Northern Isles are the party's weakest areas with a backing about a quarter below average. The party is weakest in Klaksvik (unusual for a leftist party to be at its weakest in the country's second largest town, but Klaksvik is in many ways still just a big village), and Republic has a few traditional strongholds in the Noordoyar settlements giving them a slightly higher average out there than in town.

Home Rule
Very uneven distribution. The party's strongholds are the Northern Islands and Eysturoy. This time topped by Klaksvik (where the party chairman Jogvan Skorheim is Mayor), where it got more than twice as large a share as the national average. The settlements on the Northern Isles are (interestingly enough) about 20% weaker than Eysturoy. It was a quarter below average in Vagar and the Streymoy-settlements, and only got half of the national result in the capital area. Suduroy is the party's clearly worst area, with only a fifth of the national average.

Progress
The party is very much a "center" party with its best result of around 70% above average in Torshavn and second strongest in the other parts of Streymoy, where it is about 30% above average. The rest of the country is below average. Eysturoy is the second best island (but still over 20% below), followed by Vagar and the Nordoyar-settlements with about 40% of the national average and then Sandoy and Klaksvk on 30%. Basically Progress becomes weaker the further out in the periphery you get and got its clearly weakest result on isolated Suduroy (just over 10% of the average). The party's focus on centralization and their Social Liberalism is the main explanation here. Klaksvik springs to mind as a clear breach of the pattern (it is below the surrounding settlements), although the town is conservative a sucky local campaign is part of the explanation here, whereas a couple of popular former HR candidates secured a better result in the settlements.

Centre
The party is basically strongest in the north and becomes weaker the further south you go - but there are many exceptions. Its absolute stronghold is the Nordoyar-settlements, where it is over 50% above average. Then follows Eysturoy with over 20% above. The capital area, Klaksvik and Vagar is at or about average. While the Streymoy settlements are about 10% below. The party's support is approximately 30% below the average on Suduroy and 40% below the Sandoy. (Most of) the Nordoyar-settlements and the Skálafjørður area on Eysturoy are the heart of the Faroese Bible Belt, but southern Suduroy also has many fundamentalists and constitutes a separate kind of Bible Belt, which only pulls Suduroy slightly above the neighbouring (secular) island of Sandoy. Suduroy remains filled with Red SoCons, who see no discrepancy between being on the left wing of the Social Democrats and sticking to a literal interpretation of the Bible. It is interesting that Centre polls the national average in the capital, where party chairman Jenis av Rani's is the municipal doctor, and Tórshavn is actually better for the party than the rest of Streymoy. The difference betwen Klaksvik and the settlements is also significant, but as one would have expected.

Note: Rest of Streymoy includes the populated islets Hestur, Koltur and Nolsoy (all in green on the map). The Capital area is Torshavn polling district (including the suburbs Hoyvik and Hvitanes) + the southern suburb Argir, which has its own polling station. The islands in yellow (of which Skuvoy and Stora Dimun are populated) are part of the Sandoy region.

[politicus]

Ruth Vang from Progress is appointed as new chairman of the Fiscal Committee, which is only fair and ends the Annika Olsen saga (for now). If she returns to parliament, she will be a fairly irrelevant Indie.

[politicus]

Do the colours of the map above meananything politically?

No, they are administrative borders. The areas having the same basic colour designates a region (syslu), while different shades within the region are used to mark municipalities. It is just that Skuvoy is yellow despite belonging to the otherwise orange Sandoy region. Then there are Sundini ("the Sounds") on both sides of the sound between northern Streamy and Eysturoy.

If you are interested the classic unionist/separatist breakdown is:

Nordoyar: separatist
Northern Streymoy: separatisy
Eysturoy: unionist
Vagar: unionist dominance, some separatist areas
Southern Streymoy: mixed, because everybody migrate to Torshavn
Sandoy: mixed
Suduroy: workers are unionist, but the wealthy are mostly PP separatists, while the educated are Republic voting separatists

Even if it isn't as important as it used to be this pattern still matters. But easy road access to Torshavn has changed northern Streymoy from a PP stronghold to a more mixed area, where PP is by now weaker than average.

It is also worth noticing that the fishermen working on the big ocean going trawlers get a share of the profit and make 170,00-250,000 dollars a year, more than, say, the administrator of the University of the Faroe Islands or a cabinet member, so they vote for the right wing, mainly PP. Coastal fishermen are poor, but there aren't many left of them.

[politicus]

Does the ex-PM want a referendum?

I'm new so I have to have 20 posts before I can post a link, but I found a title that says:

"Skulu hava fólkaatkvøðu um samkynt hjúnalag"

and mentions Kaj.

Yes, he says he thinks its "too big and profound a decision for parliament  to make, but should be decided by the Faroese people".

Very hypocritical, he could have called a plebiscite when the proposal was before the Løgting in 2014 instead of ordering his own party to vote it down.

(the Faroes can only hold non-binding plebiscites, but he wants all political parties to commit to respecting the decision)

[politicus]

These PMs (Kaj/Turnbull) and their plebiscites...thank you for the answer.

I edit articles on Wikipedia's LGBT rights pages and have been watching this thread lately. One question: do you know if the bill would include adoption like Greenland's?

Yes, it should be identical to the 2014 proposal and that included full equality on all issues (apart from church weddings).

[politicus]

A referendum on this would all of a sudden make the Faroese a lot more well-known in the world. Sadly, probably not in a positive way...

Nah, the sheer thought of Jenis av Rana on every major international news channel comparing gays to a swarm of locusts that will devour and destroy Faroese culture and way of life likely scares the sh**t out of the government and their tourist industry. Some intrepid reporter might also make it all the way to Skalafjørdur and dig up a fisherman dabbling as a Plymouth Brethren lay preacher, who would tell them God will diverge every shoal of fish far away from Faroese waters if they do this sinful deed and talk about people marrying dogs and sheeps as the inevitable next step (seemingly a favourite among Faroese settlement preachers).

Small countries that are rarely in the international news get their image defined for decades by something like this and the Faroese do not want to be perceived as backwards and bigoted (and most of them aren't either of those things). They already have the grindadrap thing defining them.

The other reason the government parties don't want a plebiscite is of course that unleashing this sh**tstorm of homophobia would be cruel towards the gay community. Even the Red SoCons in SD don't want this (they were in a position to demand one).

The whole thing would also be a pointless exercise. The opponents might push the no vote to 40%, but thats it. And it is more likely the supporters push the Yes vote to 70-72% given many moderates will be turned off by the sheer nastiness of a No campaign.

A plebiscite was only an emergency tool for the supporters, if they were a few votes short in parliament. For KLJ it is useful to make the government seem like they are "ignoring the will of the people" (even though gay marriage was a major theme in the election campaign) and patch over things in his own deeply divided party.

Thankfully, there won't be a plebiscite, so this is just signalling.

[politicus]

Maybe KLJ is just playing a card before the internal leadership elections of his party at the end of October? I mean, it may just be a message for the membership of the party more than for society as a whole.

In any case,  I do not think that the Faroese Assembly will have the vote on same-sex marriage before 24th October, due to the actual legislative process, so that whatever he says now may be different later.

Likely a bit of both, it does give him an excuse to vote against it (he says in the article he will do that), without contradicting his earlier statements about personally being pro-gay marriage. Now he is just protecting democracy  and the interests of the people, how noble of him...

I see no reason he should change his mind, that would just be wishful thinking.

So it is 15-13 now, but 16-12 after Annika Olsen comes back on November 1 and they won't vote before that. The opponents would need 4 out of 5 undecideds to vote no, and I still think most of them will simply abstain.

[politicus]

Any developments, guys? There seem to be more squares filled out in the Logtingid site now.

By the way, politicus, I know the word samkynd, but could you tell me the Faroese words for "marriage" and "law" and "adoption" if you know them?

No news and it is not on the agenda yet, but I will ask a Faroese contact if she knows something.

Adoption is ættleiðing, marriage is hjúnaband, law is løg (as in Løgting, the Law Thing) and the marriage law is therefore called hjúnabandslógin.

[politicus]

The Løgting administration is currently scrutinizing the proposal and it takes longer than normal, because it is a so-called "ríkislógartilmæli" ie. a recommendation to the Danish Folketing about changing a realm law (the Faroes are currently exempt from the Danish marriage equality law). In a statement the Løgting director Jonhard Klettheyggj, says that such a recommendation is very rare, and when there is one it is usually on the initiative of a Minister, but since this isn't the case here they are looking into practice. The Løgting will go on autumn holiday for a week on Monday, but the bill is expected to be put before the Løgting in the beginning of the week after that.

[politicus]

Once again thank you.

When is the Folketing going to do the voting/approval for the Greenlandic marriage law? It seems Greenland wanted the law in effect by October 1, but Danish Parliament is taking longer with the bill than hoped.

That is very unfortunate after all the delay in Greenland.., but the change of government has likely affected this. The former government by Minister of Equality Manu Sareen actually proposed such a bill (L122) on May 26, even before the Inatsisartut had finalized the Greenlandic bill (on the same day) and it went to the Greenland Committee afterwards, but this bill has now been removed (or "lapsed") and I can see no new initiative.

The marriage equality part of L122 was linked to an update of the Greenlandic parental responsibility legislation to Danish standards (which is weird because the 2007 Danish Parental Responsibility Law has been the source of endless conflicts since it gives parents extended rights to see their children even if they are, well, not really suited to do so. Transferred to a Greenlandic context with their extreme level of incest and parental abuse this would be a disaster. It might as well be this aspect that killed the bill rather than the same sex marriage part.

Again, a Liberal government is unfortunately unlikely to give this high priority, whereas Sareen would have prioritized it. I am not sure I have the time to look further into this, but you can try checking Grønlandsudvalget (the Greenland Committee). The Minister responsible for family law matters is Karen Ellemann in the Social- and Interior Affairs Ministry, whereas equality is now with Ellen Trane Nørby, who is Minister of Children, Education and Equality.

Hopefully this delay will be rather short, but it might be difficult to trace exactly what is going on.

[politicus]

About the recommendation to the Folketing to change a Realm law, and that takes longer, I wonder if it is different than the proposal in 2013, because by then they should have made the same, right?

Its exactly the same situation. A private member bill to join (or opt-in) a realm law.

Since I do not feel like returning to Atlas and feel obliged to as long as this thread is open I am closing it now. The election was  more than a month ago and the gay marriage proposal can more properly be discussed in the Great Nordic Thread on IG, especially since the Greenlandic development has now become an issue as well.

[politicus]

Here you go!

http://www.folketingstidende.dk/samling/20141/lovforslag/L122/index.aspx

My guess is that the text will be exactly the same...Just a new number.

This is the old bill, which has lapsed. There is no info on any new proposal.

[politicus]

The new proposal for Greenland is expected later this autumn in the Danish Folketing.

Apparently due to the elections in June in Denmark, the proposal needs to be discussed again (for bureaucratic reasons I assume)

Sounds plausible, but not on the parliamentary agenda. What is your source?

(you can answer in the Great Nordic Thread)