Sprint to cut 8,000 jobs
Leonardo DiCaprio attacker given restraining orderMood grim as Icelanders vote for new Parliament
Idle building cranes and empty shop windows reminded Icelandic voters of their country’s economic calamity Saturday as they voted for a new Parliament.
Opinion surveys and interviews with voters suggest they plan to turn to the left and punish the pro-business leaders who brought the country to ruin.
The economic crisis gripping this volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic just south of the Arctic Circle has emerged as the key issue.
“We have been kicked so badly that I simply don’t trust anyone anymore,” said taxi driver Sigurdur Gudjonsson, who has not found a party he can back.
He is not alone in the undecided and disgruntled category. Polls this week indicated that 8.5 percent of voters intend to turn in blank ballots as a protest.
The battered country has a new catchphrase: “It’s so 2007.” It’s said with wistful nostalgia for the blissful boom days just two years ago when credit-rich Icelanders did not know what lay ahead.
That was before the collapse of the banking sector last fall left the country swamped with debts. Unemployment is soaring as the value of the currency, the krona, sinks.
Inflation has spiraled and the International Monetary Fund has predicted that the economy will shrink by about 10 percent in 2009, which would be Iceland’s biggest slump since it won full independence from Denmark in 1944.
The mood is grim as the snowy winter lingers past the traditional first day of summer on the old Viking calendar. Many feel crushed by personal debt they fear will last the rest of their days.
Carpenter Thorvaldur Thorvaldsson lost his job and is living in his garage, trying to stretch his unemployment benefits by renting out his apartment. He is trying to sell the apartment in a depressed market, but fears he will never get out of debt.
“I think the biggest problem is that if my property will be sold for a very low price, I will have debts on my shoulder until the day I die,” he said.
Many Icelanders bought real estate while the banks were offering to lend 100% of the price. No down payment was needed. It seemed too good to be true — and it was.
Families are feeling the burden of skyrocketing loan payments. Some had loans in foreign currencies that have turned extremely unfavorable as the Icelandic krona sinks. Other loans are connected to the inflation rate, and the capital of those loans keeps on increasing with inflation now at 15%.
College students are being hit hard as vital summer jobs are exceptionally hard to come by. Usually, almost all Icelandic students work during their summer holidays to help raise tuition money.
“Students count on the summer income, the meager student loans are based on the assumption that students earn their living and save up during the summer,” said Hildur Bjornsdottir, chairman of the University of Iceland’s Student Union. “But around 50 percent of college students in Iceland have not been able to secure a summer job.”
All this turmoil translates to widespread anger at the politicians who were in charge when things turned bad.
Polls taken in the final days leading up to the vote showed a substantial drop in support for the conservative, pro-business Independence Party, which headed a coalition government last fall when the banking system failed.
Instead, voters seem to be turning to left-wing parties and to new parties forged after the crisis hit.
Voter Thordur Bjarnason said he rejected the existing parties in favor of the newly formed Citizens’ Movement because of the economic mess.
“The economic crash hasn’t had a big effect on me personally, but it changed my vote nevertheless,” he said after casting his ballot. “I voted the Citizens’ Movement. They are the only ones with fresh ideas.”
The early election was called by the left-of-center caretaker government, which took office in February after public protests toppled the Independence Party.
Voters are expected to endorse the parties in the caretaker government — an alliance of Social Democrats and Left-Greens led by interim Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir — turning their minority coalition into a majority in Iceland’s parliament, the Althingi.
“I simply cannot reward the people who have led this country into ruin,” said voter Svanborg Egilsdottir, a midwife in southern Iceland. “The ballot is the only method I have to influence the situation, however slight the influence may be.”
A Gallup opinion survey commissioned by Iceland’s national broadcaster RUV and the newspaper Morgunbladid on Friday showed the Social Democratic Alliance supported by just over 29 percent, while the Left-Green movement had just over 27 percent. The Independence Party had 23.6 percent_ far below its standing just two years ago.
The poll questioned 2,320 people April 20-22, but did not offer a margin of error.
A result in line with the poll would leave Sigurdardottir, the leader of the Social Democrats, as prime minister, although more votes for the Left-Green party could give its leader Steingrimur J. Sigfusson leverage to claim the premiership.
