Gunnar Helgason attacks government over Library Fund cut

Children’s author Gunnar Helgason has criticised Iceland’s government over an 82.2 million Icelandic króna cut to the Library Fund in next year’s budget, mbl.is reported. The fund’s allocation will fall from 224.5 million krónur to 142.3 million.

Helgason said the reduction showed that the government’s statements about improving children’s literacy and education could not be trusted. The fund’s allocation was increased by 78.5 million krónur last year.

Addressing Logi Einarsson, the minister of culture, innovation and higher education, Helgason wrote that he had run out of patience with being polite.

“Thank you very much. And go jump in … I cannot be bothered to be polite, since you have your middle finger raised yourself. When politicians think they can keep taking away our income again and again … that is rude,” he wrote.

Helgason said that repeatedly cutting authors’ income would cause a loss of talent from the sector. He claimed that culture generates 17 billion krónur in revenue for the state, while the government was taking money from what he called the country’s lowest-paid profession, children’s authors.

At the end of his post, Helgason said Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir and Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir should be ashamed. He said he could nevertheless rely on Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir, chairwoman of the Progressive Party and a former education minister, and Independence Party MP Bryndís Haraldsdóttir.

Helgason also accused Logi of violating Iceland’s constitution, referring to a legal memorandum prepared by the Réttur law firm for children’s authors. He said the memorandum concluded that a previous reduction in the fund in 2014, made under then Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, had been unconstitutional.

According to Helgason, the Audiobook Library and its loans were brought under the Library Fund in 2021 because lending books in audio format without payments being made was unconstitutional under Article 72. He said Lilja Alfreðsdóttir had then increased the allocation in line with the rise in loans, while Bjarni Benediktsson later reduced it.

“You increased the amount last year but are reducing it again now. Why? You are violating the constitution, according to Réttur. And you know it,” Helgason wrote.

He said the cut would affect children’s authors most severely. The five most popular authors in Icelandic libraries write children’s books, he said, while the target audience is smaller and sometimes consists of only a few age groups, making it impossible to live on book sales alone.