Parliamentary Smack Down

There was a heated confrontation in parliament yesterday as the session ran into the night and MP’s shared words, reports RÚV.

While discussing the controversial Household Debt Relief Package at yesterday’s parliamentary session, Left-Green MP, Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, was interrupted a number of times while proposing changes to the bill.

Following one disruption too many Steingrímur lost his temper mid-speech with Progressive Party MP Vigdís Hauksdóttir who is known for saying that Malta is not a country.

“Shut up honourable MP Vigdís Hauksdóttir!” said Steingrímur last night. “Now, I am going to allow myself to say this honourable Speaker of the House. Enough already. To have this rabble-rouser yammering away over there endlessly…”

The Speaker of the House, Einar K. Guðfinnsson, immediately told Steingrímur to watch his language to which Steingrímur replied that he would watch his language if in doing so the Speaker might try and stay awake.

It is worth noting that yesterday’s parliamentary session lasted until 2 am this morning.

Currently the Household Debt Relief Package is two-pronged. Firstly, the principal of indexed housing mortgages is to be written down and, secondly, people will be allowed to use their own tax-free, private pension holdings to pay down their debts. In effect they would be paying the debts themselves, albeit with money they normally would not be able to access until retirement.