Protesters in Iceland want government to step down

[Joanne98]

Thousands of protesters called on Saturday for Iceland's government to step down immediately, dismissing the prime minister's promise to resign and call an early election following the country's economic collapse.

Police estimated as many as 6,000 demonstrators stood on the square outside Iceland's Althing parliament, some carrying signs demanding "a new democracy."

It was the fifth straight day of protests, and the demonstration was a big as any since regular Saturday protests started in October.

Prime Minister Geir Haarde, sick with cancer, said on Friday he would quit and called for a May 9 election.

On Saturday he voiced "contempt" for some of the actions by banks that triggered the country's financial crisis.

Iceland, one of the world's richest countries per capita in 2007, plunged into crisis in October when it fell victim to the global credit crunch. Its currency collapsed as its financial system imploded and unemployment in the island nation of 320,000 is surging.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=1f8273a3-d080-4180-8159-aa26704346b6

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To stay afloat last year, Iceland negotiated a $10 billion aid package crafted by the International Monetary Fund and effectively froze trade in its currency.
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The IMF is evil!

[tama]

1. The most likely next prime minister

WHO IS LIKELY TO WIN?

Support for the two coalition parties -- Haarde's Independence Party and Gisladottir's Social Democratic Alliance -- has dwindled and is not currently enough to give them a new majority, a poll on Saturday indicated. The poll put support for the Independence Party, for decades the biggest and most influential party, at 22.1 percent, down from 36.6 percent in the last election, while the Social Democrat Alliance polled 19.2 percent, down from 26.8 percent. If an election were called now, the opposition Left-Green Party would become the biggest party, with 32.6 percent, more than twice as much as it won in 2007, the survey for Frettabladid indicated. Support for the other main opposition party, the Progressive Party, partner of Independence in a previous coalition, stood at 16.8 percent, up from 11.7 percent

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Recent opinion polls indicate that the Left-Green Party, currently in opposition, is best placed to head a new coalition and its Chairman Steingrimur Sigfusson has said he is willing to become prime minister.

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The Left-Green Party has said it wants to renegotiate the terms for the loans from the IMF itself, which total $2.1 billion. The other main political parties largely back the loan package.
More:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO578277.htm

See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-Green_Movement

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The Party presentation, from their official site:

The Left-Green Movement
(Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð)

The party was founded on February 6th 1999 after a few months work, aiming to unite socialist and conservationist groups for the elections held on May 8th.

The prelude was a structural reorganisation on the left wing of Icelandic politics. On the one hand there were those who prepared the unification of three existing parties, The Social democrats (Alþýðuflokkur), The People's Alliance (Alþýðubandalagið) and The Women's Party (Samtök um kvennalista) in one social-democratic party. On the other side there were those who fought for the unification of social-, environmental and feminist politics into one party. These were to be found in the above mentioned parties, especially in the Peoples Alliance and the Women's Party and in an open leftwing forum newly founded, Stefna - a forum for left politics.

This movement joined forces with four MP's from The People's Alliance and The Women's Party who had the same views and had for some months formed an independent group within the parliament. In due time a new political party The Left-Green Movement was founded as a choice to the left of The Alliance (Samfylkingin).

The cornerstones of it´s policy are the following:

1.
Conservation of the environment
All natural resources shall be public property and utilized without reducing them and in a careful manner. So-called green economics must be used to estimate the value of untouched nature and green taxes shall be applied to encourage protection of the environment. From our point of view, it is of great importance that Icelanders can produce all the energy they need in the future. We reject further building of power plants for the use of polluting large scale industry and demand conservation of the highland. We emphasize powerful, international co-operation and conventions concerning environmental matters.
2.
Equality and social justice
All individuals shall have equal rights and no discrimination can be tolerated. We demand full equality concerning education, all social service, public information and freedom of speech. It is the duty of the Icelandic state to guarantee the welfare of every citizen, especially the elderly and the disabled.
The Left-Green Movement supports the strenghtening of the rural areas of Iceland by means of good social service, education, prosperous culture and various economy. Privatization in public areas is of great danger in these matters, since it usually leads to a more expensive service in rural areas.
It is a project of high priority to guarantee that wages paid for 40 hours' work a week will be sufficient for a normal cost of living.
3.
Fair and prosperous economy
The Left-Green Movement is willing to strengthen the position of wage earners to influence the development of our society. The party is willing to support the development of Icelandic economy to a state of more diversity and encourage the use of environment-friendly technology. It is necessary to prevent monopoly and centralization of capital, enable the conventional industries of Iceland to develop themselves and make use of Iceland's special status to create jobs of all kinds for all the inhabitants.
4.
Independent foreign policy
The Left-Green Movement fights for an independent, Icelandic foreign policy that maintains the sovereignty of Iceland and supports all means of establishing global peace. The party opposes participation in military organizations such as NATO and WEU. It also rejects participation in the European Union and emphasizes simple, bilateral treaties concerning trade and co-operation.

The Left-Green Movement is willing to strenghten the co-operation of all nations based on mutual respect for different opinons and different culture. The party supports and wants to strenghten the participation in democratical organizations such as the United Nations, the European Council and the Nordic Council. Iceland shall support the goals of the UN and the Declaration of Human Rights by making a contribution to the abolition of poverty and hunger, social injustice, unequal division of wealth, racial discrimination, violation of human rights and militarism.

Members of the Left-Green Movement are approximately 3000 by now. The chairman is Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, MP, and vice-chairman is Katrín Jakobsdóttir MP. The secretary-general of the party is Drífa Snædal. The party got 14,3% of votes cast in the elections of May 12th 2007 and has by now 9 representatives in the parliament. They are:Atli Gíslason, Álfheiður Ingadóttir, Árni Þór Sigurðsson, Jón Bjarnason, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, Þuríður Backman and Ögmundur Jónasson.
http://www.vg.is/tungumal/english/

[Joanne98]

2. That's great news. Thank you tama.

[Demeter]

3. Thank God Cheney's in Exile Now

He'd have eaten a leftist-green Iceland for a mid-day snack.