The honeymoon is over.
 
The new coalition government couldn’t start out more badly. Everyday, the new ministers are guilty of blunders. Some big and some small.
 
Like closing the Ministry of Environment.
 
Like taking away the tax the fishing companies pay for the right to fish in Iceland’s fishing grounds.
 
And the companies in the republic are far from doing better financially than companies in the fishing industry with their record profits.
 
Stopping the accession talks with the European Union just like that, even if laws set by Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament state we should finish the accession talks, and then vote yes or no to Europe in a national referendum.

Yesterday, on June 17th, our Independence Day, the new PM, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, delivered a televised speech at Austurvöllur Square to the nation.
 
The speech, full of über nationalism, was scary.
 
He quoted four persons, Jón Sigurðsson, leader of the 19th century independence movement born in 1811, poet Grímur Thomsen born in 1820, poet Hulda born in 1881, and professor Sigurður Nordal born in 1886.
 
Not a single person born after 1886, or in the last one hundred and twenty seven years was quoted. Strange.

Sigmundur Davíð is hardly a modern monarch.

Páll Stefánsson - ps@icelandreview.com