Iceland is preparing for its second election in a year after its government collapsed over a letter of recommendation written by the prime minister’s father on behalf of a convicted pedophile.
Bjarni Benediktsson is Iceland’s fifth prime minister since its banking system collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis, taking office this past January at the head of a precarious coalition. A scandal involving offshore money had resulted in the resignation of one predecessor and had pushed another toward electoral defeat: Now Benediktsson may end up serving a shorter tenure than either of them.
Benediktsson, chairman of the center-right Independence Party, asked on Monday for Parliament to be dissolved, clearing the way for elections on Oct. 28. His governing coalition collapsed on Friday when the center-left Bright Future Party withdrew its support over the letter and accusations that he had attempted to cover it up.
The letter from Benediktsson’s father, Benedikt Sveinsson, sought a form of civil pardon for Hjalti Sigurjon Hauksson, an acquaintance who was sentenced in 2004 to 5½ years in prison for raping and sexually abusing his stepdaughter over a 12-year period until she was 18.
Under a clause in Iceland’s penal code that traces its roots to 1940, offenders can apply for a process to have their “honor restored” — which gives them a right to seek a law license and removes a bar on them serving in other positions of responsibility — if three respectable citizens vouch for their character in letters of recommendation. The clause has come under criticism by advocates for victims of sexual abuse, and the Icelandic news media has pushed the Justice Ministry to release the names of those who have sought to make use of it.
Sveinsson’s letter, written in June last year, became public last week, but the justice minister, Sigridur Andersen, said that she had told Benediktsson about it two months ago.
Bright Future has accused the government of a “serious breach of trust” for concealing the existence of the letter, and politicians across the political spectrum have seized on the scandal to call for greater transparency.
Smari McCarthy, a member of Parliament for the anti-establishment Pirate Party, described the scandal on Twitter as “Iceland’s Jimmy Savile case,” referring to a British television personality who was revealed after his death in 2011 to have sexually abused dozens of adults and children.
Benediktsson said he had been shocked to learn of his father’s letter. “I want to stress that it was a shock for me to hear this,” he said at a news conference on Friday. “I could never have signed such a letter and I would never have defended such actions.”
Sveinsson apologized in a statement released last week, saying that he in no way absolved Hauksson of responsibility for his crimes. “I did not think of it as something that would justify Hjalti’s position toward his victim,” he said in a statement. “What was supposed to be a small gesture of good will toward a convicted criminal has instead turned into a continuation of the tragedy for the victim. For this I again apologize.”
This Nordic nation of 340,000 people was hit exceptionally hard by the 2008 financial crisis: All three of its major banks collapsed and its economy shrank 16 percent in a year. Public confidence in the authorities was further jolted last year, when the prime minister at the time, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, was resigned after documents —known as the Panama Papers — were leaked from a law firm in Panama, and showed that he and his wealthy wife had set up a company in the British Virgin Islands to shelter money offshore.
That revelation prompted thousands of angry Icelanders to take to the streets, and spurred anger now being intensified by this latest scandal.
Analysts said it was unclear whether Benediktsson could survive the scandal. Egill Helgason, a political commentator who anchors a show on RUV, a state broadcaster, said the greatest beneficiary would probably be Iceland’s People’s Party, a populist group founded by a former contestant on “The X Factor,” Inga Saeland. The party has been railing against immigration, poverty and corruption.
Helgason said the financial crisis still exerted a powerful influence on Icelandic voters. “The distrust makes governments fragile and politicians more afraid of voters,” he said. Referring to the People’s Party, he added, “This situation plays right into their hands.”