Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir of the Independence Party and Sóley Tómasdóttir of the Leftist-Greens have resigned as president and vice-president of city council, respectively. They claim the Best Party/Social Democrat majority has gone back on its word to work with the opposition.
Initially, they were asked by mayor Jón Gnarr to take these positions because, as a statement from the mayor’s office in June 2010 says, “There is a willingness in the newly-elected city council to increase cooperation with all parties and use the energy of all city council officials.”
However, Eyjan reports that Hanna Birna and Sóley have resigned as they believe the “cooperation” has been decidedly one-sided.
“From the moment the new majority took over,” a joint statement from the two reads in part, “the representatives of the minority have worked hard to stand by this agreement. This was done by expediting bills on operations and solutions due to the importance of the financial state of the city’s residents … but as has been pointed out, the efforts of the minority resulted in very little, as the majority took all the big decisions without any real cooperation.”
The final straw, they say, were changes made to services for the city’s school children – changes that were pushed through by the majority despite a petition of some 12,000 residents calling for the measure to be withdrawn.
Who the new president and vice-president of city council will be is dependent on a new vote.
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