DeCODE CEO Demands Budget Bill Be Changed – Or Else

The CEO of deCODE says he will start a petition calling on people to never vote for the ruling parties again if the current budget plan is not changed.

In a column in Fréttablaðið, deCODE founder and CEO Kári Stefánsson said the government has failed to provide Landspítali, the national hospital, sufficient funding to be able to provide medical care.

Cuts to hospital funding are currently being proposed by the parliamentary Budget Committee. Budget Committee chairperson Vigdís Hauksdóttir has accused Landspítali director Páll Matthíasson of “inflicting psychological violence” on the committee with his pleas for more funding, but Kári contends the fault lies entirely with the Budget Committee themselves.

“For this reason, I want to let the Budget Committee know that if it does not change the budget proposal in such a way that much more money is allocated to Landspítali, myself and some associates will launch a petition of 100,000 signatures that the people never again vote for the parties that comprise this government, because of the coldness and indifference that it shows the sick and injured in our society,” he wrote in part. “The collection of signatures will be an easy task. The people are distressed.”

Kári has himself provided help to the hospital, having donated a CT scanner to the cash-strapped institution.