Former Reykjavík mayor, Jón Gnarr, believes that more creatives will go into politics, reports Houstonia Mag.
“I think it’s going to happen more and more, that people from the so-called creative industry—comedians, artists—they will go into politics,” said Jón, who is currently Rice University’s first writer-in-residence at the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences. “Because of the situation in most of the western world, I think people realise that creativity is needed. It’s the beginning of a very creative time.”
Jón suggested that coming to the job without a background in politics helped him make tough decisions which included raising taxes, cutting services, laying off employees, and merging schools.
“I made decisions that had to be made but that no politician would have dared to make because they fear for their reputations and their careers,” Jón said. “That’s why the political elite has to leave and will leave, because they are incapable of doing what has to be done.”
Despite these occasionally controversial moves, Jón’s popularity remains and recent polls suggest that somewhere between 35 and 40 percent of voters want him to be elected Iceland’s president in 2016.
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