Jón Gnarr To Announce Presidential Bid Decision On Friday

This Friday, author and former Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr will announce if he is running for president of Iceland.

Jón Gnarr, currently Director of Programming at the media company 365, will make a definitive statement this Friday on whether or not he will be one of the candidates running for President. With elections coming up in a just a little over six months, so far only three people, Hildur Þórðardóttir and authors Elísabet Jökulsdóttir and Þorgrímur Þráinsson, have made official announcement of their candidacy for the position.

Gnarr said he would make his announcement through one of 365’s many media outlets, which could mean by radio, television, or the newspaper Fréttablaðið, adding, “I will be in hiding until then.”

The former Mayor of Reykjavík seems to have slowly warmed up to the idea of being President of Iceland. While giving a definitive no to the question in a Reddit AMA two years ago, he went into more detail last March on the matter.

“I shudder at the thought of becoming a part of the deplorable and pathetic culture which is the Icelandic political culture,” he said at the time. “I cannot be bothered to face the pushy guy again. I simply cannot let myself and my wife be treated like that again. I cannot let my son be treated like that. I have, therefore, decided that I will not run for the office of the President of Iceland this time around. Perhaps later. I appreciate all the friendship and respect shown to me.”

However, in an interview with RÚV last December, he said that he was “happy to be president”, adding that while he considered the office “exciting”, he was not sure whether he was completely ready to actually run.

That question will be answered definitively this Friday.