From Iceland — Icesave Deal Up For Referendum?

Icesave Deal Up For Referendum?

Published June 29, 2009

MPs for the Progressive Party and the Civic Movement have submitted a
resolution to parliament which would put the Icesave deal up for
national referendum. Specifically, as to whether or not the Icelandic government bears responsibility.
12 MPs in all submitted the resolution, with the plan of submitting one question to the Icelandic people for referendum: “Should the Icelandic parliament confirm government responsibility for Landsbanki’s debts due to the Icesave bill?”
The justification in the article portion of the resolution states that it is unclear how much responsibility the government actually bears, and as 700 billion ISK (nearly 4 billion euros) is expected to be paid in the deal, the Icelandic people should have a say on who should be paying it.
The article does emphasize that the referendum would not necessarily be binding.
In a recent feature article for the Grapevine on Icesave, political scientist Eiríkur Bergmann Einarsson said that he found it unlikely that the Icelandic taxpayer would be paying for more than 25% of the total debt, with most of the renumeration coming from Landsbanki.

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