The Icelandic Roundup: Election Season Starts

Welcome to The Icelandic Roundup from The Reykjavík Grapevine. Today, Editor-In-Chief, Valur Grettisson, and Culture Editor, Josie Anne Gaitens discuss the preliminary party votes ahead of the upcoming municipal elections in May, as well as looking at the welcome that Icelanders have provided for Ukrainian refugees. We also go over the weather and road conditions as usual, and tell you about a new free English-Icelandic dictionary that you can find online.

Icelanders are starting to prepare for municipal elections which will be held in May. The Independence Party selected its candidates on the list last weekend. The party is the biggest political party in the Reykjavík City Council, although it’s not in power and hasn’t been for years.

Information about Icelandic elections can be found online from Fjölmenningarsetur / Multicultural Information centre.

Just under 300 refugees have already applied for asylum in Iceland just this month from Ukraine. Many Icelandic individuals and institutions have offered to provide accommodation for the incoming Ukrainians, including Bifröst University near Borgarnes.

The English-Icelandic dictionary is available here.

You can listen to The Icelandic Roundup via Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Buzzsprout, with other platforms becoming available in the coming weeks.

Thank you to Lava Car Rental and The Lava Centre for sponsoring this episode of The Icelandic Roundup.