No No No!

The Icesave agreement went to a referendum here yesterday and the public have said No to the deal for the second time, approximately 57% have rejected the agreement.  This latest deal has pretty much split the nation with many citizens claiming they will leave the country if the vote does not go their way. I think for many there has been more at stake than just the Icesave deal.  The EU membership for one, the no vote will make it very difficult for Iceland to become a full member and the yes vote would have openly paved the way. Of course politics is also a part of the equation and the no vote will severly embarass the Government who were in favour of accepting the new agreement.   The President, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson who had to give final approval for the bill to pass, decided the public should be the ones to determine the outcome.

This new Icesave agreement was considered by many to be the best deal that Iceland could achieve around the negotiating table and was far better than the previous agreement.  However now it looks like it will go to a European court for the final outcome to be determined...this may take several years. This topic has dominated the national TV station here, but because I still do not have a grasp of the language I miss most of it, however I do follow a few English written blogs about the issue.  It is has been widely covered in Europe but I am not sure that it gets much of a mention if any on Australian TV... so if you would like to know more check out these links about the current referendum here, here and this one here is a TV interview with Lee Buccheit the chief negotiator of the deal (apart from the introduction the interview is in English).

Not to do with the referendum, but I found this interview quite fascinating, although a couple of years old, the discussion is especially current with what is being implied in this article where very very wealthy investors are trying to buy their citizenship to this country.

 

Part 1 (apart from the introduction the interview is in English)

 

Part 2