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> This backlash agains the 'old block' and what is called 'traditional politics' It's great that Islanders express their dissatisfaction by reporting their vot

> This backlash agains the 'old block' and what is called 'traditional politics' It's great that Islanders express their dissatisfaction by reporting their votes on "the pirate party" instead of extreme right parties as we see it happening in some European countries.

gislifb 12y ago
Well I'm afraid that we will see a extreme right party in the next elections and I wouldn't be surprised if they got 1 seat in parliament. The progress party made some vague statements which were interpreted (and rightly so) as islamophobic in the last city council elections and that brought them two seats in the council. Before they made those statements they were looking at no seats so there definitely are people that will vote for extreme right ideals.
- PeterisP 12y ago
  Well, but that result can be considered a good thing - okay, you have a block of voters with opinions that you despise; but now instead of being outside the estabilishment they now have a seat or two to voice their concerns, but everyone knows exactly how small that minority is and the mainstream parties can finally start ignoring that block of voters since they'll vote for that extreme right party anyways.
contergan 12y ago
That's mainly because Iceland doesn't have the insane, self-destructive immigration policies a lot of other European countries are currently practicing. That and the constant stream of radical wannabe-communists, which usually come with left-wing politics, are the reason many people turn to the right and extreme right.
- hanspeter 12y ago
  I don't understand this logic. Are you saying that if ethnic European people are exposed to Africans or Arabs they will by default become racists? Or that if people are exposed to communism they will by default become Nazis?
  - EthanHeilman 12y ago
    The poster is saying that, short term, social change (immigration or political upheaval) brings about a reaction in favor of what is seen as conservative or hardline traditionalists. In many European countries this is a shift to the right. For example Hitler's rise to power was probably aided by Communists attempting to seize power. I'm not sure this is a general rule.
- socksy 12y ago
  That's mainly because Iceland doesn't have the insane, self-destructive immigration policies a lot of other European countries are currently practicing Ah, so they have a much more open policy allowing free movement of labour? That is far saner!
  - innguest 12y ago
    It worked for the US and Europe for 100 years of peace after Napoleon - there were no passports and there was free movement of labor. Were they all insane? Were they less sane than we are now, x-raying people before they pass a virtual line on a map?
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ende 12y ago
Or extreme left parties, as we disasterously see in Greece.
- phaer 12y ago
  Could you elaborate on what's "extreme" about SYRIZA? Some of them have their roots in communist parties, but their actual politics today seem very close to the politics of most european social democratic parties 20-30 years ago. They aren't talking about revolution, a dictatorship of the proletarians or anything like this, they just think that Greece should default rather than living on unsustainable credits forever, that the Greek tax code should be changed and that corruption should be reduced. What's "extreme" about that?
  - mullen 12y ago
    SYRIZA is extreme in that it appears not to live in a proper economic reality. They can not keep the promises they made in the election by forcing the EU to loan them money on Greece's terms. Anytime the EU gets sick of demands from Greece, the EU will simply turn off the flow of money to Greece and then Greece will collapse.
    - mjn 12y ago
      That's a reasonable criticism, but I think quite different from ideological extremism. Their problem, at least at the level of the leadership, is more just populism: they are telling Greeks many things that Greeks want to hear, which are mutually inconsistent. If anything the leadership lacks much of a hard ideological conviction, mixing together an eclectic combination of leftish economic sentiment with rightish nationalist sentiment, and a kind of paradoxical pro-EU/pro-euro position fitting uncomfortably with both of those. Hence there is this weird mixture of demanding German war reparations on the one hand (a completely counterproductive negotiating tactic purely for domestic nationalist consumption), trying to renegotiate the debt in a fairly technocratic/moderate way (into GDP-linked bonds) on the 2nd hand, a weirdly brash personal style on the 3rd hand which works badly with #2, a "red line" of no exiting the Euro on the 4th hand which restricts options considerably but is popular in Greece, and a bunch of electoral promises of the usual bread-and-wages kind on the 5th hand, which the combination of positions 1-4 leaves them virtually no room to actually enact. This all works very well for domestic politics, and the Syriza–ANEL coalition, a coalition of a large left-wing populist and a smaller right-wing populist party, is actually considerably more popular now than when they were elected. But it's not clear it is a winning strategy. The actual left of Syriza has become very critical internally over that line, which they see as incoherent and not in tune with reality: in their view, the line Tsipras/Varoufakis are attempting to take just won't work, because it wants to promise staying in the Euro and then also a bunch of things that are incompatible with staying in the Euro, but won't admit that you need to pick one. Here is one interview with a left-wing Syriza MP, criticizing them along those lines: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/lapavitsas-varoufakis-grexit-syriza/ https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/lapavitsas-varoufakis-gre.... You can differ over whether this line would be better, but I think it's more grounded in reality; Lapavitsas (the interview subject) imo much more clearly understands the concrete situation and what can and can't be done, and doesn't promise glibly that everything is simultaneously possible.
cryoshon 12y ago
Or more of the same, like in the USA.
funkyy 12y ago
The problem is that everything on the right is called extreme right at the moment. Saying "I love my country" makes you some kind of fascist. Patriotism is seen as some kind of wrong thing as it could be taken offensive by immigrants. Unless you are in Asia - then its OK because it is accepted there that when you are a guest, you live by host rules. But for some reason both Europe and America is afraid to say that. ANY kind of extreme left or right is wrong, but recently I see right parties going to the left slowly. Saying "I don't like when people do XXX" or "I am unhappy that government pays for XXX" makes you extremist. Saying this as an immigrant.

gislifb 12y ago

Well I'm afraid that we will see a extreme right party in the next elections and I wouldn't be surprised if they got 1 seat in parliament. The progress party made some vague statements which were interpreted (and rightly so) as islamophobic in the last city council elections and that brought them two seats in the council. Before they made those statements they were looking at no seats so there definitely are people that will vote for extreme right ideals.

PeterisP 12y ago
Well, but that result can be considered a good thing - okay, you have a block of voters with opinions that you despise; but now instead of being outside the estabilishment they now have a seat or two to voice their concerns, but everyone knows exactly how small that minority is and the mainstream parties can finally start ignoring that block of voters since they'll vote for that extreme right party anyways.

contergan 12y ago

That's mainly because Iceland doesn't have the insane, self-destructive immigration policies a lot of other European countries are currently practicing. That and the constant stream of radical wannabe-communists, which usually come with left-wing politics, are the reason many people turn to the right and extreme right.

hanspeter 12y ago
I don't understand this logic. Are you saying that if ethnic European people are exposed to Africans or Arabs they will by default become racists? Or that if people are exposed to communism they will by default become Nazis?
- EthanHeilman 12y ago
  The poster is saying that, short term, social change (immigration or political upheaval) brings about a reaction in favor of what is seen as conservative or hardline traditionalists. In many European countries this is a shift to the right. For example Hitler's rise to power was probably aided by Communists attempting to seize power. I'm not sure this is a general rule.
socksy 12y ago
That's mainly because Iceland doesn't have the insane, self-destructive immigration policies a lot of other European countries are currently practicing Ah, so they have a much more open policy allowing free movement of labour? That is far saner!
- innguest 12y ago
  It worked for the US and Europe for 100 years of peace after Napoleon - there were no passports and there was free movement of labor. Were they all insane? Were they less sane than we are now, x-raying people before they pass a virtual line on a map?

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ende 12y ago

Or extreme left parties, as we disasterously see in Greece.

phaer 12y ago
Could you elaborate on what's "extreme" about SYRIZA? Some of them have their roots in communist parties, but their actual politics today seem very close to the politics of most european social democratic parties 20-30 years ago. They aren't talking about revolution, a dictatorship of the proletarians or anything like this, they just think that Greece should default rather than living on unsustainable credits forever, that the Greek tax code should be changed and that corruption should be reduced. What's "extreme" about that?
- mullen 12y ago
  SYRIZA is extreme in that it appears not to live in a proper economic reality. They can not keep the promises they made in the election by forcing the EU to loan them money on Greece's terms. Anytime the EU gets sick of demands from Greece, the EU will simply turn off the flow of money to Greece and then Greece will collapse.
  - mjn 12y ago
    That's a reasonable criticism, but I think quite different from ideological extremism. Their problem, at least at the level of the leadership, is more just populism: they are telling Greeks many things that Greeks want to hear, which are mutually inconsistent. If anything the leadership lacks much of a hard ideological conviction, mixing together an eclectic combination of leftish economic sentiment with rightish nationalist sentiment, and a kind of paradoxical pro-EU/pro-euro position fitting uncomfortably with both of those. Hence there is this weird mixture of demanding German war reparations on the one hand (a completely counterproductive negotiating tactic purely for domestic nationalist consumption), trying to renegotiate the debt in a fairly technocratic/moderate way (into GDP-linked bonds) on the 2nd hand, a weirdly brash personal style on the 3rd hand which works badly with #2, a "red line" of no exiting the Euro on the 4th hand which restricts options considerably but is popular in Greece, and a bunch of electoral promises of the usual bread-and-wages kind on the 5th hand, which the combination of positions 1-4 leaves them virtually no room to actually enact. This all works very well for domestic politics, and the Syriza–ANEL coalition, a coalition of a large left-wing populist and a smaller right-wing populist party, is actually considerably more popular now than when they were elected. But it's not clear it is a winning strategy. The actual left of Syriza has become very critical internally over that line, which they see as incoherent and not in tune with reality: in their view, the line Tsipras/Varoufakis are attempting to take just won't work, because it wants to promise staying in the Euro and then also a bunch of things that are incompatible with staying in the Euro, but won't admit that you need to pick one. Here is one interview with a left-wing Syriza MP, criticizing them along those lines: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/lapavitsas-varoufakis-grexit-syriza/ https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/03/lapavitsas-varoufakis-gre.... You can differ over whether this line would be better, but I think it's more grounded in reality; Lapavitsas (the interview subject) imo much more clearly understands the concrete situation and what can and can't be done, and doesn't promise glibly that everything is simultaneously possible.

cryoshon 12y ago

Or more of the same, like in the USA.

funkyy 12y ago

The problem is that everything on the right is called extreme right at the moment. Saying "I love my country" makes you some kind of fascist. Patriotism is seen as some kind of wrong thing as it could be taken offensive by immigrants. Unless you are in Asia - then its OK because it is accepted there that when you are a guest, you live by host rules. But for some reason both Europe and America is afraid to say that. ANY kind of extreme left or right is wrong, but recently I see right parties going to the left slowly. Saying "I don't like when people do XXX" or "I am unhappy that government pays for XXX" makes you extremist. Saying this as an immigrant.