A townhall-style meeting with the Minister of Finance among the
panelists packed the house, and an online petition to implore the
president not to sign the Icesave deal is up and running.
Icesave was the subject of the townhall meeting, where Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon expressed the belief that the deal wouldn’t harm Iceland economically, that “there are other, more pressing things which are more dangerous to us”. He then asked the audience if they intended to fight, and try to stand on their own, on their own terms as a nation or whether they intended to give up. “I reject [defeat],” adding that the deal struck with the British and Dutch was the best deal they were able to work out.
Author Einar Már Guðmundsson, another panelist, said that it didn’t matter if the deal was good or bad – that the guilty parties responsible for the crash of Icesave are the ones who should pay. Helgi Áss Grétarsson, a lawyer for activist group InDefence, added that a better deal is demanded.
In the meantime, a website has gone up soliciting online signatures for a petition going to the president of Iceland, asking him to not sign the Icesave deal into law.