Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, Iceland's new president

Scandinavian Review, Winter 1996 by Blondal, Karl

When Olafur Ragnar Grimsson took office as the fifth president of Iceland this summer one of his first official duties was to award the Knight's Cross, one of Iceland's highest honors. The recipient was rear admiral Stanley W. Bryant, Commander Iceland Defense Force. Grimsson is a man not averse to photo-opportunities but this affair was somewhat hush-hush. The medal was awarded on a Friday but the event did not hit the news until the following Monday. The lack of publicity came as no surprise, though. Grimsson had until recently been the leader of the socialist People's Alliance, a political party which has made the expulsion of the military in Keflavik a pillar of its platform, and here he was handing out honors to the commander-inchief, albeit without having much say in the matter. Throughout the presidential election campaign, Iceland had witnessed the political reinvention of Grimsson but in this instance there was more than a hint of embarrassment.

Grimsson became president following a heated campaign where he maintained a steady lead throughout in spite of a sustained campaign where controversial spells in his career were scrutinized, often tastelessly. At one point, a month before the election, lawyer Jon Steinar Gunnlaugsson, chair of the election supervisory board, resigned because in view of his courtroom dealings with Grimsson as the defendant it would be a "scandal" if he were elected president. During the last week before the election, as polls showed the race becoming tighter, negative newspaper ads paid for by his opponents, and highlighting much the same issues Gunnlaugsson did, seemed to cause a backlash among voters, and, in the minds of some analysts, ensure Grimsson of his victory.

When voters were asked in a University of Iceland poll about the main reason they supported Grimsson, 69% said his skills in dealing with foreign countries were very important. Grimsson has been active in the organization, Parliamentarians for Global Action, which has sponsored international initiatives. Grimsson emphasized the president's role internationally in his campaign.

In the poll 2.3% said negative advertising against Grimsson had made them vote for him. 51.3% of those who saw the ads thought they displayed the truth but 70.5% were of the opinion that they played an abnormal role in the election.

Swift Rise to Power

Had anyone suggested in the summer of 1995 that 12 months hence Grimsson would be president, that person would have been ridiculed. Grimsson has been a controversial politician. Born son of a barber in the remote Vestfjords in 1943, Grimsson studied political science in Manchester, England, finishing a Ph.D. degree in 1970 before returning to Iceland where he taught at the University of Iceland, becoming professor in 1973. He was also in a group of young men who favored more hard-hitting journalism than had been the rule in Iceland, and came to the nation's attention for interviewing higher-ups in Icelandic society, such as the head of the Federal Bank of Iceland, without pulling any punches. In interviews Grimsson still mentions that as a result he became the "only man to have been banned on both radio and television in Iceland."

He tried his hand in the center-left Progressive Party, before embarking on a left wing course which brought him to the People's Alliance where his rise was rapid. He was elected to the A/thing, the Icelandic parliament, in 1978 and in 1980 became leader of the party's faction in the A/thing. He was not elected to the A/thing in the elections in 1983. He nevertheless maintained a high profile within the party, first as the chairman of its executive committee, and then as party chairman from 1987 to 1996. In 1988 he became finance minister, a position he held until 1991.

Although Sigmund, the political cartoonist of Morgunbladid, Iceland's largest daily, invariably draws Grimsson being followed by the Ghost of Stalin, he is by no means that far to the left. Grimsson belonged to the liberal arm of the People's Alliance, the successor party to the Socialist Party and the Icelandic Communist Party. One indication that he was at odds with the party he led was a vote at the national congress of the People's Alliance in 1993 on Iceland withdrawing from NATO, a longstanding party goal. Then chairman, Grimsson abstained, describing the resolution thus: "I consider it so simplisticly phrased, and out of step with current events, that I will not vote for it."

In the 1995 parliamentary elections Grimsson's party, with him at the helm, received only 14.3% of the popular vote. It was, therefore, a surprise that when Grimsson declared he was running for president that opinion polls showed him enjoying a decisive lead among decided voters.

Grimsson has often been a man of harsh words but during the campaign voters witnessed a different, more subdued side of him. He traveled ceaselessly around the country with his ever-present wife, Gudrun Katrin Thorbergsdottir, who was almost given the role of a cocandidate.