Iceland in Pictures

Reykjavík mayor signs an agreement on nothing

As you might have noticed, Reykjavík’s mayor is not your average cup of tea. Jón Gnarr met with the Pirate Party from Berlin in the famous Höfði building where Gorbotsjov and Reagan signed the treaty that ended the Cold War. However this time around, they signed a treaty on “nothing”.

Their rationale for this was that politicians are always signing agreements on this and that but in a year’s time they’ve probably forgotten what it was about and done nothing. Christopher from the Pirate Party found this new approach a lot more honest.

If you are interested in Reykjavík’s rather odd mayor, Jón Gnarr, check out this post from “Iceland that wants to be your friend”. Check out in particular his rather controversial speech at the Reykjavík Fashion Festival.

icelandwantstobeyourfriend:

Halló.

This is a picture of one of my people, taken by my friends at the Reykjavík Grapevine.

He is called Jón Gnarr.

He used to be a pönk, but now he is the mayor of my Reykjavík. (That is as it should be.)

When some humans who like to wear nice clothes met there a few days ago to look at nice clothes, he told them a story.

My friend Capra, who writes good letters, also sent a letter to him. (She likes to send letters to other humans.) If you are not very busy, you can read it.

Bless bless,
- Iceland

Mayor of Reykjavík does not accept a visit by the German Navy

The German Navy is stopping by in Reykjavík for a few days. In some ways this is quite good, since their rescue helicopter will serve as a backup for the Icelandic Coast Guard while one of their two rescue helicopters is in maintenance. However the mayor of Reykjavík, Jón Gnarr, will not accept visits from the navy commanders. According to Vísir, this is the first time ever that a mayor denies visits of the German Navy.

Jón Gnarr said “Icelanders should show in action, that we are a country without a military. We should encourage peace and protest against wars between one another.” Asked whether his decision is not a sign of disrespect he said: “I do not see this as disrespect to these people that are here on visit. I simply do not want to have anything to do with war mongering. It is my honest opinion that Reykjavík should be the city of peace.”

Jón Gnarr, the mayor of Reykjavík and leader of the “Best Party” is no normal mayor as you may have read in previous posts.

The guy on the right is Jón Gnarr, the mayor of Reykjavík, leader of the Best Party and popular comedian. After several years of unpopular mayors in Reykjavík Jón Gnarr announced on his comedy radio show that he would run as mayor. His campaign promises included, granting easy and well paying jobs to his friends, getting a polar bear for the Reykjavík petting zoo, drug free parliament by 2020, tollbooths on the borders of neighboring Seltjarnarnarnes and several other rather crazy ideas.

He got lots of attention not long ago when he got a tattoo with the insignia of Reykjavík on his arm. About a week later he was hospitalized while travelling in Sweden because of infections in his arm.

During the Gay Pride festival in Reykjavík, Jón made the world news by appearing in full drag.

He is of course very controversial in Iceland but he was elected with more support than any of the established parties have managed to achieve in the past few years and now after several months in office he remains somewhat popular. What people like about him is that he never avoids questions or tries to talk around subjects. He simply states his view or frankly says that he doesn’t have a clue.