According to a new Capacent poll, more people want Social Democrat city councilman Dagur B. Eggertsson to be mayor of Reykjavík again than want the current conservative mayor, Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, to remain on.
With municipal elections coming up on 29 May, all parties are out in full force to drum up support. According to an earlier poll, the Independence Party came out on top with 39.4%, or seven seats. The Social Dems achieved 26.3%, equating four seats, and the Leftist-Greens came in at 14.2%, or two seats. The Best Party – a satirical party created by comedian Jón Gnarr – is expected to win two seats.
Despite coming out as the largest party, most of those polled would rather not have a conservative mayor. 53.6% said they would rather choose Eggertson over Kristjánsdóttir, with 46.4% saying they would rather see Kristjánsdóttir.
The Independence Party has recently been hit hard with a scathing indictment of neglect and mismanagement in the Special Investigative Commission (SIC) report, while on a city level, the party was most recently criticized for supporting the funding of the city golf course for 230 million ISK, at a time when numerous cuts to city services are being made. Conservative city councilman and former mayor Vilhjálmur Þ. Vilhjálmsson’s remarks that golf is a “fine hobby” for the unemployed were also not well received.