Following yesterday’s resignations from the parliamentary Left Green Movement, the Icelandic government still has a working majority; but could also prove fatally weak under certain circumstances.
On paper, the Left Green and Social Democrat government has a majority of three (13 Left Greens and 20 Social Democrats together against 30 opposition) and the 30 opposition MPs include the two Left Greens who resigned yesterday (by leaving the parliamentary body but remaining national Left Green Movement members) who promise to vote in support of bills in line with the grass-roots Left Green agenda.
This is comfortable enough to make government run smoothly on a normal day; but the Left Greens have in their ranks three MPs (and a fourth on maternity leave) who have either voted against or abstained on highly sensitive bills in the past. It is now down to the party leader Steingrimur J. Sigfusson to persuade his coalition partner, Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democrats, Johanna Sigurdardottir that the Greens are still fit to rule.
Sigurdardottir says she plans to discuss the future carefully with Sigfusson in the coming days. When pressed, she would not categorically rule out that her party could seek a new coalition partner(s).
This Government must go.
Look at the mess they have created with Landsbanki and Kaupthing?
After 2 years and no-one has been paid a single cent yet?
Iceland, thousands of people worldwide are waiting for their money from Landsbanki and Kaupthing.
Sell up and start paying.
>Look at the mess they have created with Landsbanki and Kaupthing?
I think you have an imperfect understanding of the administration/insolvency process. The government is not allowed to interfere with the resolution committees who, in theory, should be trying to maximise the value of the assets to the benefit of all creditors.
It was actually the previous government that stiffed the bondholders (not saying that this one wouldn’t have done it, just that they didn’t have the chance). You will not get anything out of Landsbanki if that law remains in force.
@ anonymous :
More i read your posts, the more i am convinced that british MP, Sir Daviv Ruffley, clearly had reason about about Iceseave depositors.
To Bromley86,
What happened was outright fraud and theft.
NO matter what law Iceland brings out.
Iceland can even bring out a 100 laws. They mean nothing to me.
Iceland stole money from me and many thousands across the world.
Do you expect to steal our hard-earned money from us and expect us to say thank you?
Time to pay up.
“Don Franco says:
More i read your posts, the more i am convinced that british MP, Sir Daviv Ruffley”
Ruffley is also the moron. He somehow claimed that the interest rates were three times what you could get elsewhere. Yes thats true, NOW; at the time the difference was about 0.1% more. It was also guaranteed by the Icelandic government. And no matter what, depositors did get their money back, So who’s the the moron?
Ok, maybe people like anonymous who did invest large amounts of money with NO guarantee and NO professional advice.
In that case its a true, only a moron would invest in Iceland.
To anonymous,
If you really believe that and can prove it, you are welcome to go ahead and sue the people in court, that are responsible.
Most of them are relatively easy to find, having moved out of Iceland to countries such as UK and Luxembourg, were they can still work in international finance.
>This Government must go.
Some thing we agree on j, although for different reasons it seem.
j, if you are for real and not just troll, get in touch with Icelandic law firm about your loss :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2011/03/08/icesave-referendum-ballot-question-revealed/#comment-547746
Peter London/Krakow says: “Ok, maybe people like anonymous who did invest large amounts of money with NO guarantee and NO professional advice”.
That was exactly my point.
To Peter London/Krakow,
You are wrong, the Icesave deposit accounts offered by Landsbanki were NEVER guaranteed by the Icelandic government.
As has been discussed multiple times here previously on IceNews.is, the Icelandic government is not ALLOWED to guarantee any transaction, bond or deposit, unless it has been expressly authorized first by laws passed by the parliament and then signed by the president.
No such laws were ever passed, so no such guarantee was ever in place. If the IceSave III agreements are accepted in the national referendum April 4th, then and only then the guarantee will be authorized.
“You are wrong, the Icesave deposit accounts offered by Landsbanki were NEVER guaranteed by the Icelandic government. ”
Yet the Icelandic government did tell British depositors that they were guaranteed by firstly Iceland and secondary by the Nordic states. It two successive Icelandic government have agreed theat they were guaranteed.
Icelandic depositors were also guaranteed, as I have told you dozens of times, and given preferential treatment. This is the issue the EEA declared that Iceland was responsible for for the guarantee – - they cannot give preferential treatment to certain EEA member citizens.
“If the IceSave III agreements are accepted in the national referendum April 4th, then and only then the guarantee will be authorized.”
Its irrelevant what your domestic politics is on the issue, the debt is between the Icelandic state and the EU nations. The debt was taken on when your government signed the EEA treaty and allowed these accounts to open, with the full and personal backing of the highest levels of Icelandic government.
“That was exactly my point.”
Ny point was that Icesave was a protected deposit giving a tiny percent more than any other UK bank account, its not necessary to get IFA about putting money in bank account as long as your stick to the maximum.
Anonymous, however was a bond holder who put his entire life saving into Iceland, without professional advice, in Bonds which have no guarantee of repayment.
The stupid MP doesn’t seem be able to differentiate between the two (or know the real facts about the interest rates).
To Peter – London/Krakow,
We seem to be going in circles here. You state in your comment that the “Icelandic government did tell depositors that were guaranteed by firstly Iceland and secondary by the Nordic states.”
If you believe this to be true and based on actual facts, then you need to show us the actual official statements that establish that guarantee by the Icelandic government and that they were issued in accordance with the Icelandic constitution and international laws.
As for the “secondary guarantee by the other Nordic governments, the Icelandic government would never be able to promise anything on their behalf anyway, so that point is moot.
The guarantee of the deposits in Icelandic kronas, was made according to the emergency laws passed on October 6th 2008. The ESA (not EEA) has declared that those emergency laws were indeed authorized according to the EEA agreement, but has not ruled yet on whether there was preferential treatment given. If you believe this is wrong, again you need to show us the actual references to the ESA ruling in question.
It is important to remember ESA is not an actual court, but rather it is an international surveillance authority that publishes guiding opinions. Those opinions can then be used by the countries in question, and referred to in any subsequent court cases.
It is VERY relevant what happens in the referendum on April 4th, since without it there is no debt yet that has been legally established. If the IceSave III agreements are voted down in the referendum, then the UK/NL will have the option to sue in the Icelandic District Court.
The Icelandic District Court will probably first request a guiding opinion from the EFTA Court, and then rule on the matter accordingly. In almost all cases they tend to agree with EFTA Court opinions.
This may look like a rather convoluted process, but this is the only way this matter can be handled legally, since the UK/NL are not under the jurisdiction of the EFTA Court, and Iceland is not under the jurisdiction of the EU Court. Any judgment by the Icelandic District Court, is likely to be then referred to the Icelandic Supreme Court for final ruling.
If the UK/NL subsequently win the lawsuit, then they will have established an violation of the EEA agreement by Iceland. Only then can they afterwards sue the Icelandic government, again in the Icelandic courts, to claim possible damages.
“If you believe this to be true and based on actual facts, then you need to show us the actual official statements that establish that guarantee by the Icelandic government and that they were issued in accordance with the Icelandic constitution and international laws.
As for the “secondary guarantee by the other Nordic governments, the Icelandic government would never be able to promise anything on their behalf anyway, so that point is moot.”
You are missing the point. The fact that your government broke Icelandic law is irrelevant. Unlike local law which Iceland can apply when it feels like and retrospectively change, international guarantees, promises and debts made by your government on behalf of Iceland can not revoked.
If your government ministers have broken any Icelandic law, then you should take the issue up with them to stop them making promises that are illegal. However, the time to do that was four years ago before they collected billions of euros in bank deposits.
The fact is you are deluding yourself, as I said, the Icelandic government, by its actions, is fully aware of the situation.
Hi everyone,
The Bonds were guaranteed by both Landsbanki and Kaupthing.
Gurantees by Bankers seem to mean nothing, only good until the Bankers retire and the “problem” gets passed on to another Banker.
21st Century pyramid schemes are getting better by the day.
Did anyone employ these people or Bankers from the Icelandic banks?
I would expect them to be on a no-employment list or criminal list.
To be fair, the Icelandic government should give all senior employees
of the Failed Icelandic Banks criminal records so that they could never get employed again.
Then I would say that there was fairness.
To Peter London/Krakow,
Again, you will need to provide references to the actual “international guarantees, promises and debts made by your government on behalf of Iceland can not revoked” and how those guarantees were broken. Until you do, no one will believe you.
To anonymous,
Sorry to say, but any guarantees by “bankrupt” Bankers certainly mean nothing. That is unfortunately the reality of the situation.
The only thing you can hope for now, is that the current criminal investigations catch some of them in the end, and make them pay. But as you can see, that is no easy task and is likely to take some time.
“Again, you will need to provide references to the actual “international guarantees, promises and debts made by your government on behalf of Iceland can not revoked””
I have done a long time ago, I not going to bother again. After all, your government disagrees with you, as does the EEA and the EU.
Was just thinking,
The Icelandic government does not sit on shaky groung, all well in Iceland. Who could make such a statement?
No not at all folks, the Icelandic governmemnt actually sits on a … Volcano?
Just some humor folks.
From,
The orginal anonymous.
Peter London said :
>I have done a long time ago, I not going to bother again.
I did take a look for you but unfortunately I did not find any posts like that. That is because you dont have the references Peter.
Maybe Brumley can find them, he is maybe better at the Google than me,
>After all, your government disagrees with you, as does the EEA and the EU.
A strange state ment even by your fact loose standards. I will just send you this love letter of debate we did have before to remind you :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/05/27/efta-iceland-must-pay-icesave/#comment-170782
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/07/24/efta-extends-iceland-icesave-deadline/#comment-216600
( Of course the EU post Sept 2008 does decide that the depositor guarantee directive 94/19/EC after Ireland did unilaterlally guarantee its banks with state guarantee . Before then it was not like that, as state backing would be state aid that would not be compatible with one of main EEA agreement pillar some thing that was skaeted over in the EFTA Suirvellance Authortiy opinion that Mr Kurt Jaeger did kindly write .
That posts is one of ones I did tell Brumley earlier I had missed replying to. I will do when I get my time to do it . )
To the “pro-Iceland” group,
I’m not a rich investor or a multi-millionaire, so I’m not going to gamble another 10 years on lawyers fees to get my money back from Iceland. The very big Banking Institutions and very big investors will and they will surely win, these very rich institutions and investors are very influential, so political pressure is not excluded.
I lost 10 years of my best working life to Iceland.
I did not steal my money or inherit it.
I do not need to prove anything to anyone either, the dissolving/resolution commitees of Landsbanki and Kauopting have all that information at their disposal.
I want my money back and I will never give up.
Iceland stole 10 years of my working life and Iceland has the means to pay. So pay back the money owed to the Bond Holders.
anonymous / j :
I have sympathy with you but posting on this boards is not getting you closer to any of that.
As above if you are for real and not just troll, get in touch with Icelandic law firm about your loss :
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2011/03/08/icesave-referendum-ballot-question-revealed/#comment-547746
( I am not sure which firm to make you recommendation to — any one here got a suggestion ? )
To anonymous1:
Iceland is a country, not a bank. As such it did not have any specific business relationship with you and therefore could not have “stolen” anything from you.
Based on your earlier posts, you apparently purchased bank bonds issued by an Icelandic private bank directly from your local bank. You were apparently told by your bankers, that these bonds were guaranteed by the Icelandic government, which unfortunately was wrong and not based on any actual facts.
Your beef should be with the specific people that lied to you, and very possibly defrauded you (I say possibly since this is not yet proved in court). You should put the blame were it belongs, that is on the management of the banks involved, both those in your own country and those in Iceland.
You can keep on repeating that you want “Iceland” to pay you back, but in the end even you must know this is just an exercise in futility.
We the people of Iceland, simply had nothing to do with these bonds issued by the banks. We therefore have no interest, no capability, nor any legal requirement to pay the bond holders anything.
Sorry to be so direct, but I just wanted to make sure you understand this simple fact clearly.
Your anonymous troll is just pulling your chain. The problem these idiots have is their own governments have made those private debts public debts and they cannot understand why all you Icelanders do not follow the goat path.
I, as I am sure many are jealous that you can have a country that reflects what the people think of governments that bail out private investors out of the peoples pockets. Trying to ignore the issue that private bankers lied, gave fraudulent advice and bad consul to investors/depositors, who were then robbed by those very same bankers is hard to swallow when their governments have freed the bankers of the debt and put it on the backs of their citizens.
Iceland has done what many rational beings wish would have been done. There would be no austerity needed in the US, UK, NL, and no nation would have gone under (like Portugal for a mere 110 billion) had the bankers not robbed the people of over 7 Trillion dollars. The only thing that would happen is the frauds would go to jail and their assets dispersed to the investors – like any private company gone south. We would also see those fraudsters go to jail. Only YOU Icelanders have done this so far.
CHEERS to you 60 percenters!
The emergency law introduced by the Iceland government is what made everything unfair and created this whole mess.
These banks clearly commited big fraud and lied to the investors.
The Icelandic government should never have meddled in these Bank’s affairs and a fair process should have been followed to dissolve these banks and pay the creditors equally, albeit 10-20 returns%
But Iceland wanted everything, not to pay the ivestors and still pay the Icelandic depositors from the the proceeds fo these Banks.
You cannot have both. Something is very wrong with the process.
The British and Dutch will deal with the matter.
These are very influencial and very powerful nations that determine the direction of history. Glad these two nations are taking things seriously. Wonder when the Germans will act, because they lost big money in Iceland.
Watch this space in the next few months.