The make-up of the new Icelandic government will be almost unchanged to start with, according to mbl.is. There will be 12 ministries and cabinet ministers will increase from 10 to 12. New ministers will be named for industry; and for environment, fisheries & agriculture. A government press release states, though, that the government intends to trim the number of ministries from 12 to nine over the course of the upcoming term.
According to mbl.is sources, the non-MPs, Ragna Arnadortir and Gylfi Magnusson will retain their posts as Minister of Justice & Ecclesiastical Affairs and Minister for Business Affairs, respectively. Johanna Sigurdardottir will be Prime Minister, Ossur Skarphedinsson will be Foreign Minister and Kristjan L. Moller will be Minister for Communications.
Steingrimur J. Sigfusson will head up the Ministry of Finance, Katrin Jakobsdottir will be Minister for Education and Ogmundur Jonasson will be in charge of Health.
Arni Pall Arnason, Social Democrat regional leader in the Southwest, is expected to become the new Minister for Social Affairs and Social Security, while Katrin Juliusdottir will be Minister for Energy, Industry and Tourism.
The new Minister for the Environment will be Svandis Svavarsdottir and Jon Bjarnason will take charge at the Ministry for Fisheries and Agriculture.
Asta R. Johannesdottir and Kolbrun Halldorsdottir will not participate in the new cabinet, according to mbl.is sources.
A meeting of the Left Green Movement parliamentary group finished a short while ago and now members are sitting in a meeting to come to a final agreement on the make-up of the new ministries.
The current plan appears to call for a cabinet reshuffle in the New Year in relation to next year’s budgetary requirements. At this stage it seems likely that industry, fisheries and agriculture will be merged into one “Ministry for Employment”.
In that circumstance, the Ministry for the Environment would be strengthened to take charge of the Ministry of Industry’s work with natural resources. At the same time, the Ministry for Commerce would also take charge of economic matters currently being taken care of by the Prime Ministry.
AND NOW EVEN MORE BAD NEWS THIS ICELANDIC GOB. WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH… EU COUNTRIES HAVE REDUCED THEIR IMPORT OF ICELANDIC FISH. AND THEY ARE ONLY WILLING TO PAY 48% ( THE HALF OF LAST YEAR) IN EUROS FOR THE FISH…
NOW THIS LOOKS VERY BAD FOR ICELAND. IF THIS GOBERMENT WAS THINKING ABOUT PAYING OUT THE DEBTS AND GETTING THE VERY NECESSARY FOREIGN CASH BY SELLING FISH…
NOW ICELANDERS HAVE TO REALLY GET READY FOR SHORTAGES AND REAL POVERTY… NOW WITH THIS LAST NEWS WE CAN EXPECT THE UNEMPLOYMENT TO RISE THE DOUBLE IN ICELAND.. WE WILL SEE UNEMPLOYMENT IN ICELAND RISING 30% OR MORE! WE ARE GETTING CLOSER TO THE TOTAL COLLAPSE!!
IT IS OF COURSE TO MAKE ICELANDERS UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS EU WHO RULES THE MARKET…
NOW IT IS APPLYING TO EU MEMBERSHIP OR POVERTY FOR YEARS TO COME, BECAUSE OTHER COUNTRIES WILLING TO PAY JUST THE HALF ( OF COURSE THEY KNOW ICELAND NEEDS THE EUROS, THE KRÓNA IS USELESS, AND IS NOT IN POSITION TO NEGOTIATE ANYTHING)
THIS NEW GOB. NEEDS TO TAKE DECISIVE STEPS INTO EU, THE SOONER THE BETTER ! ICELANDERS WILL SOON GO TO THE STREETS, TOTALLY DESPERATED TO ASK FOR THIS COUNTRY TO DO SOMETHING!!
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/tea_party/tea_party_0415_06.jpg
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/tea_party/tea_party_0415_04.jpg
GUS where did you find that nonsense?
every eu country makes it’s own imports, as long as they follow some standards. And the prices are supply and demand. huh?
GUS, Iceland will do fine, inside or outside of the eu. It’s just needs some time.
Do GOBERMENTs talk too much?
>”At this stage it seems likely that industry, fisheries and agriculture will be merged into one “Ministry for Employment”.”
Surprised they not just rename it as the Ministry of Plenty.
I cant wait to see they first 5 year plans including projection for tractor production.
Of course it will have to be tractor pulled by the Icelandic horse ( nod to friend in Left-Green ) becuse this bio fuel idea wont work so good here and high tech for hyrogen power requires too much dealing with outside capitalist world for Steingrímur and he colleagues.
That’s a good one :-)
“Back to USSR”? Helvítis FokkiNG FOKK!
We can hang wires over fields – so tractors will be electric. Organic and greeeeeen. ;-)
NIKO GREECE. ” GUS, Iceland will do fine, inside or outside of the eu. It’s just needs some time.”
DID YOU CONSULT THE ORACLE OF THEBAS OR WHAT?
LOOK, AGAPIMU
I DON´T LIKE PROPHECIES TOO MUCH, THEY JUST PUT THIS DEBATE OUT OF PLACE. WE ARE HERE ABOUT DISCUSSING MATTERS RELATED TO THIS NEW GOVERNMENT AND THE ECONOMICAL SITUATION OF ICELAND.
WE TRY TO POST ABOUT FACTS AND ANLYSE THE SITUATION. SOME PEOPLE ( LIKE ME EASY, NIELS, ETC..) TRY TO MAKE A REALISTIC AND OBJECTIVE APPROACH OF THE SITUATION: RECOGNIZING PROBLEMS, ELABORATING POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS… ETC…
BUT FROM THE MYTHOLOGIC POINT OF VIEW, AND WITHOUT RECOGNIZING THE FACTS, AND, WHAT IS WORSE, COMING UP WITH UNREALISTIC FANTASIOUS SOLUTIONS, WE ARE NOT GETTING ANYWHERE… WELL, BETTER SAY, ICELAND ISN´T GETTING ANYWHERE…
HOW MUCH TIME NIKO??
MY TIMER SAYS:
IN THE EU: 5-10 TO FULLY RECOVER ( ACHIEVE THE ECONOMIC LEVEL OF WESTERN EU )
OUT OF EU: A SPACESHIP FROM A DISTANT GALAXY WILL LAND ON MOUNT HEKLA AND GREEN BEINGS WILL HANDLE A BAG TO EVERY ICELANDER WITH THE MORE THAN 3 MILLION OF DOLLARS THEY NEED TO PAY EACH… ( CHILDREN INCLUDED)
HAHAHAHAHA ;-)
:) so, you do speak greek!
I think Iceland owns about 40b$ or something. That’s about 150,000$ per citizen (really why did the government nationalised these banks it’s beyond me).
It’s big, but it’s not that big as you think GUS. The dept can be repaid in the indefinite future.
Greece has similar debt “per capita”. If we don’t screw up completely to end up asking the IMF to “save” us, we will be fine.
The big problem is not the debt but the IMF, cause it imposes policies that aim only at paying back the debt as fast as possible, by destroying at the same time the productive capabilities of the country.
In Iceland’s case (small population) they know they can’t take the money back that way, so they will be more flexible. :)
“IN THE EU: 5-10 TO FULLY RECOVER ( ACHIEVE THE ECONOMIC LEVEL OF WESTERN EU )
OUT OF EU: A SPACESHIP FROM A DISTANT GALAXY WILL LAND ON MOUNT HEKLA AND GREEN BEINGS WILL HANDLE A BAG TO EVERY ICELANDER WITH THE MORE THAN 3 MILLION OF DOLLARS THEY NEED TO PAY EACH… ( CHILDREN INCLUDED)”
So you think the EU will pay 3 million $ a head for us if we join ?
I think Iceland will start talks with EU but we will never join, EU is falling apart and will soon be worse off than we are,
We have seen worse, we got the plague twice, one of the biggest volcano eruption in history with the biggest lava flow ever seen and toxic gas that killed over 20k people and 80 of all livestock,
and a few depressions, this crisis relatively small in our standard,
i dont understand why EU would solve any problems
but i can see the problems it will create,
our total debts are ca 3100bn kr max
the CB reserves are 450bn kr, pension funds ca 1800bn kr, all in foreign currency, some assets can be sold to cover losses,
unemployment is 10% and not incresing, same as in USA, all shipyards and aircraft hangers are full of mechanics and stealworkers because Iceland is cheap now, fishing companys get payed in $ but pay salary’s in kr, obviously a profit for them,
we have no problem selling our fish, alot of our fish is being prosessed in UK, we could if nessecery shut down all factorys in UK and fully process our products here and create lots of jobs that way, the price is reasonable, but if the EU market closes down we will just have to focus on other markets, the world is bigger than Europe,
we have recieved 800m $ from IMF, that amount is still sitting in a bank in New York,
there is no fear or desperation here,
if any country in the world can be self sufficient for food and energy in the world its Iceland,
if EU countrys are paying less for our products because of our need for euros we will simply import less from EU countrys, its not like it will kill us,
what i want to do next along with a large part of the nation is to send the British ambassador back to UK and call our ambassador home.
.. don’t misunderstand me. I don’t mean dept is good. Instead of investing, you have to pay the “tribute” aka interest.
But as long as you can pay that interest and maybe a bit of the capital each year, it’s not the end of the world.
… and if these “tributes to the plutocrats” – the interests – cannot be paid, Icelanders should kick the IMF out saying “guys, sorry, we can’t pay. Next time check better where you put your bloody money”, and start from the beginning.
The problem is that this way imports should be reduced considerably and I don’t know what the natural recourses of Iceland are.
@Axel:
And the world is pink with no war and no hunger, and elephants fly, and we will live happily ever after. Peace and love yeahh!!!
“-our total debts are ca 3100bn kr max
-pension funds ca 1800bn kr, all in foreign currency, some assets can be sold to cover losses,
-we have recieved 800m $ from IMF, that amount is still sitting in a bank in New York
-there is no fear or desperation here,”
By the way Axel all those numbers and figures, are so November – December, media maipulation. Then, everybody realized(exept you) that was bulls@@t, that they stop trying to sell that idea to the public, so wake up!!! long time ago they have realized that that is not the case.
How many of the ministers in the “new” government were in the old government, which ruined Iceland in October 2008?
Thats a good question balkason, anybody knows?
Move a couple of people around to different spots and TA-DA a new government.
All the numbers i refer to are new and correct Easy,
the tourists are pouring into the country now and and people i have talked to in the travel industry are saying this is going to be a record year,
we have 7 University’s and 4 legal departments and are building the 5th, it will be ready in the fall,
this is our new coastguard airplane
http://www.lhg.is/starfsemi/adgerdasvid/nyttvardskipogflugvel/Dash8/nr/1161
it will be delivered in June 2009
this is our new coastguard ship, Þór, a beauty :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utuWQDS4PLE
we are finishing the music hall, it will be a landmark in Europe, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world,
we are building a aluminum plant in Helguvík, some 250-300k tons and plans are being made to greatly enlarge the Aluminum plant in Sraumsvík,
in Krossanes Eyjafjörður a large factory has been built and is ready, they are already expanding it
http://www.becromal.eu/iceland_projects.php
this is just of the top of my head,
the future prospect of Iceland is excellent.
despite of problems between UK and Icelandic government’s no one has anything against British people here.
Not many, assuming wiki is correct. It’s pretty good considering the SD were in that government. As far as I can see the positions weren’t directly linked to the banks, except perhaps Ossur’s old one.
OLD
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Össur Skarphéðinsson
Kristján Möller
NEW
Árni Páll Árnason (SD)
Katrín Júlíusdóttir (SD)
Steingrímur J. Sigfússon
Jón Bjarnason
Ögmundur Jónasson
Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Svandís Svavarsdóttir
Gylfi Magnússon (Ind)
Ragna Árnadóttir (Ind)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_Iceland
UNEMPLOYMENT IS INCREASING. THE THING IS THAT MANY PEOPLE HAVE GONE OFF THE COUNTRY. THEY ARE NOT CONSIDERED UNEMPLOYED IN ICELAND, AND MANY OTHERS HAVE BEEN “CONVINCED” TO GO AND STUDY AND SURVIVE ON A STATES-STUDY LOAN.
MORE AND MORE PEOPLE LOOSES THEIR JOBS IN ICELAND EVERY DAY. IN SOME TOWNS OF THE SOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IS OVER 25%!!!
THAT ARE THE LAST NEWS!!
GETTING INTO THE EU MEANS GETTING INTO ANOTHER ECONOMIC SYSTEM THAT WILL BE BACKED BY THE CENTRAL BANK OF EUROPE AND ONE OF THE STRONGEST CURRENCIES IN THE WORLD. THAT WOULD SET A HUGE DIFFERENCE IN THE RECOVERY OF ICELANDIC ECONOMY. AS I SAID, AFTER 5-10 YEARS AFTER JOINING THE EU ( WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER 3 YEARS APROXIMATELY) AND JUST WHEN ICELANDERS HAVE TOTALLY BROKEN THEIR HEADS AGAIN AND AGAIN AGAINST THE SAME WALL… YOU ICELANDERS REALLY NEED TO SUFFER TO UNDERSTAND.
OK, SO ICELAND HAS GONE SO BAD TIMES BEFORE. YES… SO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IS TO FLEE ALL TO CANADA AGAIN. THA WILL BE THE EASIEST WAY AND LET US THE PEOPLE OF FOREIGN ORIGIN DO SOMETHING FOR THE COUNTRY. I WILL PAY YOU THE TICKET…
THE SITUATION OF ICELAND IS VERY BAD, FIRST YOU SAY YOU WANT TO BE INDEPENDENT ( WICH HAVE TO ANALYZE WHAT DOES REALLY MEAN BECAUSE YOUR INDEPENDENCE HAS TURNED INTO ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL ISOLATION) AND THAT IS NOT INDEPENDENCE BUT INCOMPETENCE AND NOT BE ABLE TO PLAY THE GAME IN THE INTERNATIONAL ARENA.
SO YOU DON´T NEED ANYONE, SPECIALLY NOT EU. BUT HEY! GET YOUR CAPS READY BECAUSE YOU ARE ABOUT TO GO BEGGING AGAIN TO THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD… THIS IS, IN FACT, A NATION OF BAGGERS…
THAT GIRL WEARING RUSSIAN CLOTHES AND SINGING IN RUSSIAN. ICELANDIC DIPLOMACY IS SO FUNNY. NOW YOU ARE TRYING TO GAIN RUSSIANS SYMPATHY… THAT IS WHAT THE RUSSIANS WANT, SOMEONE TO LICK THE SOLES OF THEIR SHOES. AND NOW THAT YOU HAVE THE LEFTS ( ALL OLD COMMUNISTS AND THE LIKE) THEY HAVE SUCH A ROMANTIC LINK WITH RUSSIA.. WELL MAYBE YOU CAN MAKE BUSINESS TOGETHER AS YOU ARE BOTH NATIONS OF HIGH CORRUPTION.
TAKE THE HAND OF THE RUSSIANS, YOU WILL DO WELL WITH THEM, GET READY FOR DRIVING LADAS AND DRINK VODKA. AND THEN RUSSIA WILL PLACE ITS MISSILES AND NUCLEAR ROCKETS IN ICELAND AND REUSE THE OLD AMERICAN BASE.
THAT IS WHAT THIS GOBERMENT IS TRYING TO DO. GET THE RUSSIAN SUPPORT. BUT THAT AT THE END IS BREAD FOR TODAY AND HUNGRY FOR TOMORROW.
WHAT ICELAND IS SHOWING TO THE WORLD IS THAT IS READY TO SELL ITSLEF TO THE BEST BUYER, NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE, FIRST WHERE THE AMERICANS, NOW THE RUSSIANS…
BUT THE EU, THE EU IS NOT ABOUT DOMINATION, IS ABOUT CONFEDERATION OF MANY NATIONS, AND THE POLITICAL SCHEME IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN THE SCHEME YOU HAVE KNOWN IN ICELAND.
JOIN THE EU, OR SELL THE COUNTRIES TO THE RUSSIANS…
GOOD LUCK!!
@Axel: You really make me laugh, you really like to find something to cheer yourself up, dont you? Just few comments, Missionaries in the jungels have better plains that that, They can built as many aluminium factories as they want, they dont belong to us, we are just renting the land, and giving them electicity almost for free, who wouldnt want to have a place where they give you free power?, the “wonder of the world” they are “building” at the harbor, will probably be finish in 10 years with the 5 to 10 people they hire to work there, exactly for peole like you(there are many) to think hey look they are still working, its not so bad, plus it will be own by a forign company, dont worry.
Just a news flash!! Almost every company including the fish industry, housing found and pension found and buildings (including probably my house and yours) in Iceland is morgaged to the bankrupt banks, and this banks have a debt of about 80 billion euros with a bunch of countries in europa, so they acctually own everything allready, they are now just changeing all legislation so they can take over oficially, in the mean time our goberment is just takeing care of them for them, so its not about what will we loose if we join UE, we have allready lost it, it will just be easyer for them for administration porpouses to have the country into the same administration system, thats all.
Axel said: “EU is falling apart and will soon be worse off than we are”
no comment :)
GUS said “JOIN THE EU, OR SELL THE COUNTRIES TO THE RUSSIANS…”
GUS STOP THAT, you are misleading the people. EU is not the messiah. And being outside of the EU fine. EFTA or NAFTA are equally good from the business point of view.
I Insist of that: If Iceland is to join, they would do so cause they share the same vision for the future. NOT in terms of benefits. This will harm both Iceland and the EU.
Nikos “I Insist of that: If Iceland is to join, they would do so cause they share the same vision for the future. NOT in terms of benefits. This will harm both Iceland and the EU.”
What about EU´s vision on its fishing stocks,
looks to me like they are destroying them,
i wonder what they intend to do when they are gone,
the reliability of people who handle things this way is obviously questionable,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N6URYN_nc4
this is from our 3rd cod war,
we simply can not and will not hand them over,
Ask the people of Ireland how they like the EU blizz, they may reject the maastrict treaty but if they do they will just be asked again and again until they accept, that is EU freedom for you,
when they accept this treaty the EU will have unlimited access to all their natural resources,
one resource that comes to mind is Ireland’s claim for the Hatton rockall oil prospect area along with UK and Iceland,
what you fail to see is that the force that drives the EU is money, nothing else.
“the maastrict treaty” my mistake,
its called the Lissabon treaty.
so many treaty’s and endless rules and regulations,
EU tryes to avoid all democracy and does not accept no for an answer, what kind of a system is that ?.
I’ve seen people post this sort of thing before. Excluding fish (which I recognise is very important to Iceland), I do not believe that there is any truth to this statement.
For example, AFAIK the UK is not in a worse position than Norway with reguards to the EU somehow stealing revenue from North Sea oil (i.e. it doesn’t).
If joining means Iceland has to sign up to the CFP as it exists now, then there would be almost no circumstances where doing so wouldn’t be economical suicide. So that’s the position your people will start from when talks begin.
Frankly, I’ve not seen anyone make a case for Iceland joining the EU unless it gets an immediate exemption to the Euro joining conditions. Just as no one has made a case for the EU doing that when even Norway has said no to Icelandic monetary union.
And thanks for the opportunity to link to the Icelandic map of the various claims in the Rockall region. Ireland needs the EU to help defend it from Iceland’s rampant Atlantic imperialism ;) .
http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/Frettamyndir/landgrunnsk_hatton_rockall.jpg
“what i want to do next along with a large part of the nation is to send the British ambassador back to UK and call our ambassador home”
Not quite true. It’s just Brown who is the problem. Brown is the colour of poo.
EU will have unlimited access to all natural resources if it is needed, this is true, just read the fine print ;)
what EU is about is total domination over member states and zero democracy, as this monster grows bigger it will use force to gain control over all of Europe, and its natural resources,
this system reminds me of the Soviet union,
i believe the EU will eventually crash and that process has already started,
All of Britain’s claims to the hatton rockall area will be dismissed by us, a large slice of it is ours :)
Russia claims a most of the arctic area
they are preparing for conflict,
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/03/russias-new/
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/05/2009512154316599785.html
This depression, all the debts and money printing,
fights over oil and gas, no trust in bureaucrats and politicians, unemployment, endless problems,
this does not look good.
>EU will have unlimited access to all natural resources if it is needed, this is true, just read the fine print ;)
But it’s not true at the moment, right? Otherwise you’d have refuted my point about the lack of difference in the relative sovereignty over North Sea oil between an EU member and an EEA member.
So, we know it’s not the case now. Which just leaves your fine-print-EU-monster-will-swallow-you point. That’s an easy one. If the EU tries that, then leave. If the EU prevents you from leaving, they’d have to do so militarily. But, if an unaligned Iceland (with all those tasty fishing rights) sat on the borders of an entity that was willing to do that, then that entity would invade Iceland anyway and/or take those resources.
i.e. you don’t have to like the EU, but don’t make stuff up.
Although general consensus to date has been that Ireland in worst shape it is not the one I expect to default first on sovereign debt when Germany says no to helping out.
As I say other posts it is Spain.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8049574.stm
“Spain’s economy suffered its largest contraction in 50 years in the first three months of 2009 ..Economists said the falls were the steepest seen since 1959.”
“the European Commission has said it expects Spain to be the last European Union country to exit recession, probably in 2011.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8016364.stm
“Spain’s unemployment rate hit 17.4% at the end of March, figures have shown, with the jobless total now having doubled over the past 12 month”
“The Bank of Spain recently predicted the jobless rate would reach 19.4% in 2010, as the recession took hold.”
All this free money being made, this huge socialist monster unemployment benfits paid, etc. soon the stress on the Euro from Spanish direction is going to be huge.
Soon Euro notes from Spain be rejected every Euro country, not just Germany.
Get ready for Spanish sovereign default before 2011.
And that means Spain is certainly not going to be cutting its largest in Europe fishing fleet or asking to follow national quota any time soon, Brumely.
And dont be naive about whole way of leaving EU. You being ludicriously inaccurate. I already answered that one for you in other post.
>Not quite true. It’s just Brown who is the problem. Brown is the colour of poo.
http://www.dogma.is/english/mos/362/ sure this T shirt popular in the UK as well
There isn’t a good Darling T-shirt other wise I would buy it.