He was ultra-favorite: theIceland re-elected triumphantly Saturday for four years its outgoing president Gudni Johannesson, with almost 90% of the vote, on the basis of results which are still provisional.
With this academic – history professor – without political label, the volcanic island of 365,000 inhabitants has chosen continuity, twelve years after the spectacular bankruptcy of its banks in 2008, and at the dawn of a new global economic crisis due to coronavirus.
“I am honored and proud”, declared the winner to AFP on the sidelines of his election night at the Grand Hotel 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.
According to provisional results available around 1:30 a.m. local time and GMT, covering 67,000 votes, Gudni Johannesson came out on top with 90.6% of the vote before his only rival, the populist right-wing candidate Gudmundur Franklin Jonsson (9.4% ). Either more or less the score predicted by surveys in recent weeks.
252,217 electors
252,217 voters were invited to go to the polling stations.
Gudmundur Jonsson quickly recognized his defeat. “I send my congratulations to Gudni and his family”he said, acknowledging that he never really thought he was making a double-digit score.
Came to vote on a bicycle near Reykjavik, President Johannesson had said on Saturday morning to AFP his desire to “Continue on the same path” in case of re-election.
“Easy choice”
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 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.
“Why change when it’s good”
Apart from precautionary measures (distance of two meters and hydroalcoholic gels in offices), the epidemic, practically extinct for weeks on the Nordic island, had no impact.
Johannesson, the youngest president elected since independence in 1944, has enjoyed strong popularity since taking office in 2016.
“I think it was the easiest choice in my life to vote. I had decided for a long time “ one of her voters, Ragnhildur Gunnlaugsdóttir, 47, told AFP. “Why change when it’s good”, agrees Helga Linnet, another 46-year-old voter.
Unlike his predecessor Grimsson, who did not hesitate to fuel partisan controversy, Mr. Johannesson insisted on consensus during his tenure at the presidential residence in Bessastadir.
Consensus
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 the bulk of power rests on the government and the current left-wing Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, the opponent Jonsson wanted to make the presidential function more active, for example by using the referendum more.
Which for many would be a departure from tradition. “I don’t really like this because the president in Iceland has a ceremonial role and not a political one”, believes Audunn Gisli Arnason, one of the voters interviewed by AFP before the vote.
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 first female head of state in the world, in the person of Vigdis Finnbogadottir, 90 years old today.
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