Maybe it would be best for both Jón Bjarnason and the whole country if he were to move to Grímsey, an uninhabited island in the West Fjords.
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The new Dreamliner, Boeing 787, landed at Keflavík International Airport yesterday morning for test flights in side wind. According to the airport’s information officer Fridthór Eydal, the airplane will be in Iceland for test flights for about a week.
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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of a hike to Hraunsvatn lake in Öxnadalur valley in north Iceland, which lies at a height of 490 meters, interlocked between two steep mountains and a small glacier with a view of the majestic Hraundrangar peaks.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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After considerable delays and an unusually long election night, all ballots have finally been counted. The coalition parties, the Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, carried through with have a majority in parliament (34 MPs out of 63) and could remain in government.
Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir, the leader of the Social Democrats and the winner of yesterday's elections. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.
Their victory is historic as never before in Iceland's political history has a left-wing government earned a majority of seats in parliament.
However, their victory is not as decisive as the latest opinion polls had indicated since the Left-Greens ended up receiving fewer votes than the Independence Party. The Progressive Party was also surprisingly strong compared to the results of recent opinion polls.
The 2009 election with subsequent losses and gains are as follows:
The Social Democratic Alliance (S): 29.79 percent and 20 seats in parliament, earning two.
The Independence Party (D): 23.70 percent and 16 seats in parliament, losing nine. Support for the party has never been lower.
The Left-Green Movement (V): 21.68 percent and 14 seats in parliament, earning five.
The Progressive Party (B): 14.80 percent and nine seats in parliament, earning two.
The Civic Movement (O): 7.22 percent and four seats in parliament. This is a new party and had no previous seats in parliament.
The Liberal Party (F): 2.22 percent and no seats in parliament, losing all four of their seats.
The Democracy Party (P): 0.59 percent and no seats in parliament. This is also a new party.
These elections are also historic in the sense that 27 out of 63 MPs in parliament are women (i.e. 43 percent), which is a higher percentage than ever before. In total, 27 new MPs will have a seat in parliament after yesterday's elections, mbl.is reports.
Click here to watch a bar chart of the election results on ruv.is and here to read about what this means for Iceland and the EU.
Stay tuned for more detailed stories on the elections.
Click here to read this story in German.
The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book 2010 Eruptions as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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Dadi Gudbjörnsson's art with its smiley faces, Aladdin's lamps, gleaming hearts, blue mountains and psychedelic flora of unearthly origin reminds me of the cheesy R.E.M. song “Shiny Happy People”. The sugar-sweet naivety fails to amuse me but I must admit it infects my mood with delirious joy.
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Former President of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir turned 80 on 15 April this year and Mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir—in making her an Honorary Citizen of Reykjavík to mark the occasion—observed that Finnbogadóttir’s life was interwoven with that of Reykjavík. In June 1980 Finnbogadóttir made history when she became the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.
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Today, August 30, and tomorrow is your last chance to visit the exhibition “Eau De Parfum” by Andrea Maack at the Spark Design Space in Reykjavík. In the exhibition space, Maack introduces three perfumes that are the result of her collaboration with French perfumery apf aromes & parfums.
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