Sigrún Davíðsdóttir's Icelog

In a recent blog I mentioned that the Icesave bill, on the state guarantee related to the Icesave agreement between Iceland, the UK and the Netherlands, had been passed in Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament. Is has, but the final handling of the bill will be this week. It will no doubt be passed, as earlier, but then it’s up to the Icelandic president to confirm this new law, as all new laws.

Last year, the president didn’t sign, sending it off to a referendum. Yesterday, the president was interviewed on the political chat show ‘Silfur Egils.’ He wouldn’t be drawn on his position this time, pointing out that he would wait since he wasn’t and shouldn’t be in any dialogue with Althingi, neither on this issue nor any other issue. He also mentioned that this last agreement was undoubtedly a great deal better than earlier agreements, praising the chairman of the Icelandic negotiation team Lee Buchheit for his work.

The general feeling in Iceland is that he will sign the bill. However, the president, who is a firm believer in direct democracy via referenda, might well repeat the act from last year. Also, a petition that has been put forward to ask him not to sign the bill might influence him if this action gathers momentum. But the main differnce now is that Icesave is no longer the hot political issue that it used to be, i.a. because the leader of the Independence Party Bjarni Benediktsson has come out in favour of the agreement though it has upset some in his party.

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