Interior Minister: City Elections “Great Blow” To Outgoing Mayor, Best Party

Minister of the Interior and former Reykjavík mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir said that the results of last Saturday’s city elections were “a great blow” to outgoing mayor Jón Gnarr and the Best Party – which actually ceased to exist under that name last year.

“These results are a great blow to the sitting mayor, and to the Best Party,” Hanna Birna said on the Stöð 2 show Eyjan yesterday. “While I sat on city council, the city council [Independence] party polled at 40% to 43%, the whole time.”

As many readers are probably aware, however, Jón Gnarr did not run in these elections. In fact, he announced his retirement last October, while at the same time announcing that the Best Party would cease to exist, but that its councilors and candidates would run under the banner of Bright Future.

Hanna Birna’s contention that her party in city council never polled lower than 40% is also not true. At the time of Hanna Birna’s announcement in May 2013 that she was quitting city council, RÚV reported that Gallup polls showed her party with 32%, but had polled at 42% in September 2012.

Hanna Birna also cautioned Eyjan viewers about an all-but-certain formation of a four-party coalition led by the Social Democrats and also comprising Bright Future, the Left-Greens, and the Pirate Party.

“Believe me,” she said. “This will be the most leftist coalition we have seen in Reykjavík in a long time.”

Possibly-incoming mayor Social Democrat Dagur B. Eggertsson posted on Facebook that coalition talks are still ongoing, with an expectation that they will continue into next week.