MPs question government’s conflicting EU and economic claims

Former minister and Left-Green Movement MP Svandís Svavarsdóttir says the parties in Iceland’s current government are making contradictory claims about the economy and European Union membership, mbl.is reported. She asks whether they were bluffing before the last election, when they said they could tackle the problems, or are bluffing now by claiming Iceland cannot manage without EU membership.

“I simply ask: which time was the bluff?” Svandís said on Morgunblaðið’s Dagmál programme, where Andrea Sigurðardóttir interviewed her and Independence Party MP Hildur Sverrisdóttir.

Svandís referred to the election campaign, when the parties now in government emphasised that they knew how to govern and could address the economic difficulties.

“Was it a bluff when people said, ‘We know what we’re doing, bring on the sledgehammer’ … or is it a bluff now? Because you cannot maintain both positions,” she said.

Hildur said it was uncomfortable to consider whether the government might have a political incentive for economic conditions not to improve quickly.

“It is so uncomfortable that the government might actually have an interest in conditions being as bad as possible,” Hildur said.

She said high inflation and interest rates could strengthen the arguments of those who want Iceland to adopt the euro and join the European Union. She nevertheless said Iceland had previously brought inflation and interest rates under control and could do so again without joining the EU.

Svandís said it was unacceptable for political parties to claim both that they could manage Iceland’s economy and that the task had become impossible without EU membership. If a referendum resulted in a no vote, she said the government parties’ political mandate and position would have to be reassessed completely.