More than 1,000 people, some of whom beat barrels, participated in a demonstration that took place outside the Icelandic parliament, Althingi, on Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík yesterday evening when Prime Minister of Iceland Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir gave her keynote speech.

From the protests on Saturday. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.

The police concluded the demonstration had been peaceful, even though loose objects were tossed at the building and a fire was lit. No one was harmed and the police only had to interfere in a few cases; there were no arrests, Morgunbladid reports.

University of Iceland Sociology professor Helgi Gunnlaugsson stated that the anger that could be sensed among protestors during recent demonstrations is based on people feeling the government has not prioritized fairly and let them down.

Saturday’s protests mark a turning point in the history of demonstrations in Iceland in terms of the violence shown when food was thrown at parliamentarians, causing one of them to collapse, Gunnlaugsson said.

However, people will now realize that they went too far, he predicted.

Click here to read more about Saturday’s protests.

ESA