Icelanders Storm Parliament
Aftermath from Friday's protest.
More than 3,000 Icelanders protested the opening ceremonies of the country’s parliament Friday, hurling eggs at parliamentarians, clergymen, the President and his wife.
MPs who made the annual walk to the church next door for a christening ceremony had to scurry for cover as Icelanders pelted them with eggs, yogurt, and tomatoes. Among those reportedly hit were Prime Minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, and Dorrit Moussaieff, the wife of Icelandic President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.
The scene got so bad that the politicians were forced to enter the Althing, Iceland’s parliament, through a back door after the church service.
Video of the protest can be seen here (sorry, they’re not allowing hotlinking).
“There is a realization that the IMF is going to wipe out our middle classes,” said Birgitta Jónsdóttir, one of three MPs who joined the protesters. Iceland took out massive loans from the IMF and its Nordic neighbors to stay afloat after the economic crash of 2008.
Alma Jenný Guðmundsdóttir
One protester, Alma Jenný Guðmundsdóttir, went into nearby branch of Landsbanki, the National Bank of Iceland, and conducted her own solo protest. Guðmundsdóttir shouted out to customers that the bank had written off debts amounting to ISK 2.6 billion belonging to a company owned by former Prime Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson and his family, and asked whether if they were just going to take it.
Security officers immediately tried to pull Guðmundsdóttir out of the bank, but she shouted that she wouldn’t leave, she had the right to free speech and anyway, Landsbanki is a state-owned bank now, and she’s one of the owners.
At that point, security threw Guðmundsdóttir on the floor and dragged her out of the bank.
Árni Páll Árnason, the minister of economics affairs, told The UK Guardian that while times are tough right now, the government has taken the right steps to achieve a balanced budget by 2012. “We expect 3.2% growth next year and we believe unemployment has peaked at 8.3%,” he said.
Oct. 2, 2010
www.therightperspective.org/2010/10/02/icelanders-storm-parliament/