Social Democrat MP Ólína Þorvarðardóttir, writing on Eyjan.is, warns voters that voting for The Best Party – a joke party created by Jón Gnarr to parody Icelandic politics – would be a wasted vote.
With city elections coming up three weeks from tomorrow, conservatives have watched their numbers plummet, while support for the Social Democrats, the Leftist-Greens and The Best Party continue to rise. In fact, The Best Party now stands to win four of Reykjavík city council’s 15 seats, and are currently polling with the full support of 24% of city residents.
Ólína contends that The Best Party has no platform per se, and to vote for them is equivalent to shooting into the air. This is no time to be voting for joke parties, she contends.
She writes that she appreciates the fact that the party was meant to be a means of criticizing the parties currently in power. However, she says, “this joke with The Best Party and its support has now reached an end. It’s actually not just a yellow card on politicians, but a failing mark on the voters themselves.” She says that she personally has nothing against the candidates in the Best Party, although they could stand to have more female candidates.
Ólína then, unfortunately, decides to make a slipper-slope fallacy with a string of what-ifs, and essentially implies that party chairman Jón Gnarr is unfit for public office. In her defense, however, The Best Party really doesn’t seem to have a platform apart from “making Reykjavík a more fun place to live”.
Remember, if you’re a Scandinavian foreigner who has lived in Iceland at least three years – or a non-Scandinavian foreigner who has lived in Iceland at least five years – then acquaint yourself with the platforms of all the political parties, and remember to vote on 29 May.