The Glacier That Would Be President

It may not have made the ballot, but this isn’t the end for Snæfellsjökull

Icelanders will head to their local polling stations on June 1 to elect the next president. The country has been gripped with election fever since the wildly popular outgoing president Guðni Th. Jóhannesson announced in his new year’s address to the nation that he would not be seeking re-election. The furore that followed Guðni’s announcement saw an incredible 82 individuals electronically throw their hat into the ring to be the next president of Iceland. In the end, 12 made the ballot.

Perhaps the most unique presidential hopeful to signal their interest in ascending to Iceland’s top office was not even a person. Among the long list of names of human candidates was a glacier. Snæfellsjökull, to be exact, lest you erroneously assume Vatnajökull was in the running. (Could you imagine!?)

With Canadian-Icelandic interdisciplinary artist-researcher Dr. Angela Rawlings lending their kennitala to legitimise Snæfellsjökull’s candidacy, the glacier centred its campaign around the core values of environmental consciousness and global unity, while aiming to challenge the status quo and “elect a candidate that symbolises endurance, resilience and global interconnectedness.”

Had Snæfellsjökull appeared on the presidential ballot, topics including climate action, rights of nature, transparency, ecocentrism, diversity and inclusivity would have been foregrounded through the presidential race in May.

Angela also served as Snæfellsjökull’s campaign manager, working toward the glacier’s collection of endorsements to make it to the official ballot along with a team of more than 40 volunteers from Iceland and abroad. Though Snæfellsjökull did not collect the requisite 1,500 endorsement signatures needed to continue their candidacy, that’s not the end of the Snæfellsjökull campaign.

“Had Snæfellsjökull appeared on the presidential ballot, topics including climate action, rights of nature, transparency, ecocentrism, diversity and inclusivity would have been foregrounded through the presidential race in May,” Angela told the Grapevine. Though not on the ballot, the Snæfellsjökull For President campaign held exhibitions and happenings in May to highlight the environmental messaging at the centre of their movement.

Locked out

Snæfellsjökull was running with an established platform presented in four languages — Icelandic, Polish, Spanish and English — and a dedicated team of volunteers, but still the campaign received minimal attention from Icelandic media, who instead zeroed in on the big name candidates.

“We made a collective decision to run this campaign on a purely volunteer basis and not fundraise. Still, we are the only candidate in this entire election who got international media coverage and interest from news outlets on every continent,” explained campaign volunteer Galadriel González Romero. “We made announcements via press releases, a website, and a social media buildup and video reveal — the same or more than the other candidates did — yet we got minimal media coverage in Iceland.”

Galadriel explains that the team learned that, faced with such a large number of candidates, the national broadcaster RÚV had made an internal decision to cover candidates who held press conferences. So Snæfellsjökull held a press conference, inviting 50 journalists from every Icelandic news outlet. Not a single local journalist attended, though international journalists joined over Instagram live.

It was also in international media that the campaign garnered the most headlines. The Guardian called the campaign “The continent’s most singular presidential bid.” Australian national radio called Snæfellsjökull “One of the most extraordinary presidential candidates that Europe has ever seen.” And German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote, “Anyone who says that a glacier is not suitable for political office: That was also rumoured at Finnbogadóttir and Sigurðardóttir at the time,” referencing to Iceland’s first female president Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, and Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly LGBTQ+ head of government.

“After fulfilling every single requirement that was made of us, we got information that only candidates who are paying a PR manager with inside contacts in news agencies get coverage,” Galadriel lamented. “This means that Icelandic elections function as a sort of pay-to-play. A democracy relies on the public being able to make an informed decision. I don’t think the public was given the opportunity to make an informed decision during this nomination period.”

The message remains

Though Snæfellsjökull’s messaging didn’t break through to Icelandic voters, its very participation in the race and its highlighting who gets to participate in democracy, who will speak for the environment and what is important to the world and its inhabitants.

We have gotten used to seeing our environment as a resource we can profit from. Our campaign served as a reminder that we humans are a part of the environment, one species among many, and that we live on a shared planet where all elements and their wellbeing are interconnected.

“Humans like to think of themselves as unique and often see environmental issues as separate from the human ones,” said campaign volunteer Martyna Daniel. “We have gotten used to seeing our environment as a resource we can profit from. Our campaign served as a reminder that we humans are a part of the environment, one species among many, and that we live on a shared planet where all elements and their wellbeing are interconnected.”

At this watershed moment in history, world leaders should be paying more attention to environmental policy and protection. As Angela noted, “By the time Snæfellsjökull is significantly melted in 2050, more than 1.2 billion people from 32 countries will face climate displacement.”

If wealthy nations like Iceland are grumbling now about increased immigration, the very harsh reality of the near future should spur real interest and action.

“Currently, Iceland’s new, non-elected centre-right Independence Party prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson is calling for stricter immigration legislation and increased restriction on asylum seeking,” Angela said, referring to Bjarni’s insistence that stronger borders is a key issue for Iceland at this time. Notably, Bjarni ascended to the prime ministry when Left-Green prime minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir vacated the position in order to run for president.

“Bjarni Ben and his party’s calls for stricter immigration run counter to what is urgently needed within national and global policies and legislations,” Angela continued. “This is the time for precautionary measures to be implemented by our policymakers — not myopic, nationalist, egocentric legislation that runs counter to the immediate future interests, survivorship and sustainability of humans and non-humans.”

“It’s time we shift our mindset from egocentrism to ecocentrism,” Angela concluded. “Embrace transformation; it’s already arrived.”

Follow along with Snæfellsjökull’s ongoing actions at kjosumjokul.com and facebook.com/sfjfyrirforseta.