A new majority coalition for city hall has not yet been formed, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing happening.
The Best Party and the Social Democrats are still in negotiations about a new majority for city hall, and are still hammering out the fine points of what issues they plan to address, how, and in what order (with the help of Reykjavík residents, via the website betrireykjavik.is). However, one idea that has been receiving a lot of attention is the concept of income-based playschool fees. As it is, everyone pays the same amount for sending their children to playschool. It is possible, though, that the city will pass a law which makes playschool fees more flexible, based on the income of the parents, Jón Gnarr’s assistant Kristín Helgadóttir told RÚV.
Both parties are reporting that so far negotiations are going well. In fact, Gnarr has been serious enough about working with the Social Democrats to give Social Dem councilman Dagur B. Eggertsson a copy of the HBO television series The Wire. As Gnarr told the Grapevine, he was only considering partnerships with those who have seen the series, which goes into great detail about corruption within Baltimore city hall. Gnarr’s emphasis has become so popular that the retail chain Hagkaup is now advertising the DVD set of The Wire with the slogan “The television series that The Best Party recommends.”
As a Baltimore native myself, I can tell you that this warms my heart.