MP for the Progressive Party Þorsteinn Sæmundsson reiterated who his party is fighting for in a discussion yesterday about correcting indexed property loans. Þorsteinn described the woes of a woman who looked forward to being able to afford getting her hair professionally coloured at a hair salon. “Which people are you fighting for?” he asked Left-Green MP Edward H. Huijbens.
Here’s the transcript of Þorsteinn’s spirited speech:
Honourable President, I wish to thank the distinguished MP for his reply. He says it’s not likely that a household with two people earning the average BHM [Association of Academics] salary is struggling to make ends meet. When us candidates were campaigning last year we met thousands of people who told us their stories and convinced me, and all of us, even more that actions like these [correcting indexed property loans] are necessary.
And I want to share a story with the distinguished MP. I met a fine middle-aged woman, an upper-secondary schoolteacher whose husband was a public servant in the BHM union. They had sold their flat to downsize, fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat, and this fine woman told me, ‘I look forward to the day when I can stop dying my own hair and can go to a salon to get it done.’ It’s for people like this woman and her husband that we put forth our proposals.
[Someone in the room yells out, ‘Are you joking?’]And I appreciate—or actually don’t appreciate—I’m saddened to hear a representative of a socially-minded party laugh at this. And if this is the humour that—and this humour was apparent during the time of the previous administration—it would be very interesting for everyone to hear it in this manner, probably to many people’s delight… Which people are you fighting for, distinguished MPs of the Left-Green and Social Democratic Alliance?
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