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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of the lambing season at Brimnes, a farm in the north of Iceland, in April 2008. Sheep farmer Arnar Gústafsson and his girlfriend Edda Björk take shifts watching over the nearly 300 ewes and helping them give birth 24/7 for about two months or until the last lamb is born. In Iceland, the arrival of lambs is synonymous with the arrival of summer. The lambing season is currently at its height.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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Icelanders seem eager to support new parties running at the next parliamentary elections, scheduled in 2013. According to a new survey conducted by Fréttablaðið and Stöð 2, more than 30 percent of respondents intend to vote for new political parties.
Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
The survey indicates that Samstaða (“Solidarity”), the latest of the new parties, which is chaired by former Left-Green MP Lilja Mósesdóttir, would receive 21.3 percent of votes and 14 seats in parliaments if elections were held today, visir.is reports.
Samstaða is thus the country’s second-largest party after the Independence Party which 35 percent of respondents said they would vote for, resulting in 24 seats in parliament, up from the current 16.
According to the survey, another opposition party, the Progressive Party, comes third with 12.5 percent of votes. However, their seats in parliament would still decrease, from nine to eight.
Support for the winner of the last election in 2009, the Social Democratic Alliance, measured 12.3 percent, which would result in eight seats in parliament, down from the current 20.
Eight percent of respondents said they would vote for the other coalition party, the Left-Green Movement, reducing its number of seats in parliament from 12 to five.
Another new party, Björt framtíð (“Bright Future”), chaired by former Progressive Party MP Guðmundur Steingrímsson, follows with 6.1 percent of votes as indicated in the survey, which would result in four seats in parliament.
Support for the other two new parties and the third opposition party, The Movement, which currently has three seats in parliament, would get less than two percent of the electorate and thus no MPs.
The Movement is currently working on establishing a new political party along with the Civic Movement, the Liberal Party and various grass root organizations.
The survey was carried out on Wednesday and Thursday evening this week when 800 voters were called at random. However, only 52.9 percent responded to the question which political party they would vote for if parliamentary elections were held today.
Because of the low response rate, the results of the survey should be taken provisionally.
Click here to read more about Samstaða and other new parties.
ESA
Magnús Skarphéðinsson, principal of the Icelandic Elf School, has expressed his concern that Independence Party MP Árni Johnsen may be subject to an accident after relocating a boulder allegedly inhabited by elves to his home in the Westman Islands.
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The first music festival this summer, Reykjavík Live, kicks off with concerts in the center of Iceland’s capital tonight and will carry on through May 20. The venues are Gamli Gaukurinn, Glaumbar, Prikið and Frú Berlaug.
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President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his main rival for the presidential election on June 30, Þóra Arnórsdóttir, are supported by an almost equal number of voters, 41.3 and 43.4 percent, respectively, as indicated in a new survey.
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The West Fjords District Court ruled on Monday that a man found guilty of having drowned a Labrador by tying its front and hind legs, fastening it to car tires and throwing it in the ocean is to pay ISK 100,000 (USD 786, EUR 612) in fine.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes interviews with fashion photographer Saga Sig and conceptual artist Rúrí. Also, we take you to Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum, that desolate land coveted by a Chinese tycoon, and also explore Icelandic archeological remains. We discuss the Icelandic Church, the flourishing gaming industry, debate the future of Iceland’s energy resources and interview the president of the Icelandic National League of North America. Subscribe now and receive a free photo book by IR’s editor Páll Stefánsson of the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The Reykjavík Shorts&Docs was held in Reykjavík from May 6 to 9 in Bíó Paradís, and what an enriching experience it was to attend the festival.
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Shedding light on Iceland’s thousand-year history, as manifested in remains ranging from Viking graves to enchanted sites, Mannvist is a fundamental piece of writing. Ásta Andrésdóttir met with its author, archaeologist Birna Lárusdóttir.
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“The House Project” currently on display in Hafnarborg, the Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, is a new artwork by Hreinn Friðfinnsson consisting of a photography series of the three houses. His work is described as “a poetic and philosophical exploration of every day human experience.”
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