The ultra-favorite won: Iceland re-elected triumphantly on Saturday and for four years its outgoing president, Gudni Thorlacius Johannesson, with more than 92% of the vote, according to the final results of the presidential election published on Sunday, June 28.
In this ballot by universal suffrage, this former university history professor won 92.2% of the 168,821 votes cast, compared with 7.8% for his populist right-wing opponent Gudmundur Franklin Jonsson. An overwhelming trend that has been uniform in Reykjavik, the capital, and in all regions of Iceland.
Turnout is down, to 66.9%, against 75.7% in 2016 during the first election of Mr. Johannesson, and 69.3% in 2012. This democratic victory with an almost dictatorial score was predicted by the polls, which in recent weeks credited the outgoing president with 90 to 94% of voting intentions. It is the second highest score in a presidential election in Iceland.
With this academic without political label, the volcanic island of 365,000 inhabitants made the choice of continuity, twelve years after the spectacular bankruptcy of its banks in 2008, and at the dawn of a new global economic crisis due to the epidemic caused by the new coronavirus.
“I am honored and proud”, declared the winner to Agence France-Presse (AFP) during his election night in Reykjavik. “For me, the result of this election is proof that my fellow citizens approved my conception of this office. And gave me a mandate to continue to exercise my role in the same way as the past four years., he commented.
Mr. Jonsson quickly recognized his defeat. “I congratulate Gudni and his family”he said, acknowledging that he never really thought he was making a double-digit score. 252,217 voters were invited to go to the polling stations.
A protocol role but also a legislative block
In the parliamentary system of the Nordic island, the head of state has an essentially ceremonial role. It has only one real power, and it is important: a constitutional right to block the enactment of a law and submit it to a referendum.
It was in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that this form of presidential veto had been used for the first time. Conservative President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson had launched two referendums, in 2010 and 2011, on an agreement to compensate foreign customers injured by the bankruptcy of their bank, Icesave.
After Serbia last Sunday, and before Poland and France this Sunday, Iceland is the second country to hold an election since the start of containment measures in Europe. Apart from precautionary measures (distance of 2 m and hydroalcoholic gel in the offices), the epidemic, practically extinct for weeks on the island, had no impact.
Strong popularity
Johannesson, youngest president elected since independence in 1944, has enjoyed strong popularity since taking office in 2016. Unlike his predecessor, who did not hesitate to fuel partisan controversy, Johannesson insisted on the consensus during his lease at the presidential residence of Bessastadir.
His only rival struggled to unite with his polemical side. Managing a hotel in Denmark from Iceland, this 56-year-old ex-stockbroker on Wall Street entered politics in 2010 by creating the right-wing populist party Haegri Graenir.
In a country where most of the power rests on the government and the current Prime Minister of the left environmentalist Katrin Jakobsdottir, the opponent Jonsson wanted to make the presidential function more active, for example by using the referendum more.
Without huge stakes, the Icelandic presidential can claim a special place in the history of gender equality. In 1980, it led to the election of the world’s first female head of state, in the person of Vigdis Finnbogadottir, 90 years old today.
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