Political Blunder

Framsóknarmenn have no reason to continue to complain about the Icesave agreement.  Their party missed the chance back in July to put themselves in a better position to control the events that are now unfolding. 

In July, the Althing voted on whether or not to formally apply for membership in the European Union.   The vote was close, 33 in favor to 28 against.  Had the vote gone the other way, the government of Samfylking and VG would have collapsed since 6 of the members of VG voted against the bill.

All Framsóknarmenn had to do was stay together on that issue, politically, and have everyone vote against EU membership.  But three members, Guðmundur, Siv, and Birkir Jón voted in favor. Had these three voted the other way, the count would have been 31 to 30 against, the bill would have failed and so would have the government.

Had the government collapsed, Framsóknarflokkurinn, along with Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn could have had the possibility to form a new coalition with VG since all three parties are very close, idealogically, on the two biggest matters today, EU membership and the ICESAVE  agreement.  (Regardless of what Steingrímur says publicly.)

Samfylking would have had very little chance of holding power as there is bad blood between them and Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn from the previous government. Samfylking would have to give in too much on the ICESAVE agreement to win over both Framsóknarflokkurinn and Borgararhreyfing, needing both to maintain a majority.

So all that Framsóknarmenn needed to do was to give in on the short term goal and vote unanimously against EU membership to achieve the longer term goal of having some say in the ICESAVE agreement.  As politicians, this is what they they are supposed to be good at; playing politics. Because of their inability to see the bigger picture, this political blunder left their party  looking inept and without any power.

 

GTB 

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