"Iceland is a small country and a small political system, and sees everything from its own point of view," stated Baldvin Þór Bergsson at a breakfast debate organised by the Nordic Region in Focus in Stockholm, in the wake of the Althing's report on the economic collapse in Iceland. The debate was heated from the start and there was disagreement about Iceland's ICESAVE obligations and about whether the role of the media had contributed further.

Political and institutional failure

"The report gives the media a hard sentence for not having been critical of the banks, and I think the media has been manipulated. The large media concerns in Iceland are too closely tied to serious business interests and to the two largest parties," stressed Siv Friðleifsdóttir, Icelandic MP and member of the Nordic Council. She said that the report talks about political and institutional failure in Icelandic society.

"The authors of this report are very brave. A former prime minister, two other former ministers and the former management of the Central Bank and the Financial Supervisory Authority have neglected their duties. Many amongst our politicians had a feeling that something was wrong, but it is difficult to understand how things could go so crazy. It is not a good feeling being a politician in Iceland at the moment," said Siv frankly.

Not let down by the Nordic countries

"Icelanders feel let down by society. They are used to fighting against the forces of nature, but not against the State and public institutions," said Iceland's ambassador in Stockholm, Guðmundur Árni Stefánsson.

His Swedish colleague in Reykjavík, Anders Ljunggren, rejected allegations from certain quarters that the Nordic countries have let down their sister nation in the west. Siv Friðleifsdóttir believed, on the contrary, that the Nordic countries have done everything they can to help Iceland.

"The report states that the Nordic central banks, with good reason, demanded guarantees for a system change at the Central Bank of Iceland. The management of the Central Bank would not promise that, something not known by most Icelanders before the report was published," said Siv.

Thinks EU developments critical for Iceland

Icelandic Lára Long is an air traffic controller in Malmö and moved to Sweden before the crisis happened.

"I decided to move from Iceland which had become a one-way system in overdrive, and where "everyone", myself included, had loans in foreign currency. I moved to Sweden, sold the car and paid off my loans. A week later the Icelandic kroner crashed," explained Long. She doubts whether she will have the desire or the financial means to go back, and she is in doubt about whether the EU is the answer for Iceland, a subject which was discussed at the end of the breakfast debate.
"Developments in the EU and with the euro will be as important for the decision on whether Iceland joins the EU as are the developments in Iceland," said Ambassador Anders Ljunggren.