Resigning in Iceland
Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigns due to the collapse of his coalition following the breakdown of the Icelandic economy. I’m a little confused as to why the early elections have been called for May 9. It seems that given the nature of the situation, Icelanders could use early elections to happen really early — like sometime in mid-to-late February. The ability to call early elections when incumbents have been discredited is one of the strengths of these kind of systems of government, but you may as well use the power to actually avoid America-style “months of drifting aimlessly.” But the election date was set a couple of days ago, so maybe as a result of the decision to resign it can be moved up even further. I’ll admit that I’m not entirely familiar with Icelandic constitutional procedures.
23 Responses to “Resigning in Iceland”
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January 26th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
I’ve lost all confidence in you, Matthew.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Northern countries generally attempt to avoid having winter elections as that seriously impedes turnout.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
“The ability to call early elections when incumbents have been discredited is one of the strengths of these kind of systems of government”
I’m not sure the people of Italy would agree with that.
Mike
January 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I’m sure he’s only kidding, Rich. Or, at least, so I hope.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Well, we need at least 45 days constitutionally to prepare an election. The May 9 date has not been definitely decided yet but the second Saturday in May is the traditional election day.
Until the elections, we’re most likely to have either a national unity government or a minority government of the left-wing parties with the neutrality of the center parties.
The name being floated today for leading either type of government is Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. She would be our first woman prime minister. And our first openly gay prime minister, come to that.
But I’m not surprised Matt can’t make head or tail of what’s happening, the foreign coverage of what’s happening in Iceland today has been quite bad in my opinion. Example: There’s a bunch of talk about the EU but no mention of the fact that public opinion in Iceland has swung decisively against EU membership.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Also: It’s interesting that Matt is so keen on the advantages of parliamentary government. Over here in Iceland there’s currently a lot of support for a constitutional reform towards a split between the legislature and the executive – i.e. for moving closer to the American/French systems. I guess Total Economic Doom will make you rethink things no matter where your starting point is.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
the second Saturday in May is the traditional election day
Well, maybe we can at least agree that holding US elections on weekend would be an improvement . . .
January 26th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
I guess Total Economic Doom will make you rethink things no matter where your starting point is.
Yeah, the big talk here is of nationalization of the banks. The cognitive dissonance is raging so bad in the heads of reactionary conservative (or economic liberal in the parlance of much of Europe and the rest of the globe) propagandists that they are creating fictitious CBO reports as if no one would notice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/business/economy/26banks.html?_r=1&hp
January 26th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
One would think American bloggers have more pressing issues to write about than foreign constitutional issues they don’t have a clue about.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I think a political system which calls its Congress the AllThing is inherently interesting.
January 26th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
One would think American bloggers have more pressing issues to write about than foreign constitutional issues they don’t have a clue about.
No, you see, President Obama solved all issues in six days and now the bloggers are desperatelty looking for something, anything, to write about.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
One would think American bloggers have more pressing issues to write about than foreign constitutional issues they don’t have a clue about.
Well, in retrospect I think it’s fair to ask if covering the primaries and even the general election in such excruciating detail was really a productive use of our time – just imagine how our horizons would have been expanded if all those blogposts covering the soundbites and gaffes of the various campaigns had instead been about significant developments in other countries.
January 26th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I think it takes a little time to put an election together — otherwise it’s not fair to all the potential candidates. Like Haukur says, too. Sometimes corrupt parties in power will call special elections because they know they can get their candidates together and that the opposition won’t be able to, not that Haarde’s corrupt – I have no reason to believe that.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
novakant: nothing against Matt covering international issues but he didn’t also have to throw in an unqualified opinion.
January 26th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
But that’s how we know and love him, no? I think it’s a deliberate tactic to stimulate user participation
.
January 26th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Treble’s right. An election as soon as constitutionally possible would be seen as unfair and unwise by some because the parties need time to reorganize after the catastrophe and to find a few good men to run as candidates. New parties also need time to get off the ground.
January 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I’m glad to see this posted. It’s pretty phenomenal that the people of Iceland forced their government to call new elections. This financial crisis is global and it’s a good idea to watch how it effects other countries, and how those countries deal with it.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Matt’s willingness to have an opinion about something he has no fucking clue about is why he is one of 25 most influential liberal media types.
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