Icelanders Protest the New Government’s Environmental Policy 30th May

At least one thou­sand peo­ple gath­er out­side of the gov­ern­ment offices yes­ter­day to deliv­er a chal­lenge to the prime min­is­ter, Sig­mundur David Gunnlaugs­son. The gov­ern­ment is chal­lenged to with­draw state­ments regard­ing chang­ing the pow­er plant pro­gram, but the gov­ern­ment wants to change it so that more areas can be used for pow­er plants. 

The pro­test­ers want to spare the envi­ron­ment and not build too many pow­er plants. The chal­lenge comes with reviews regard­ing the pow­er plant pro­gram that the pub­lic, insti­tu­tions, munic­i­pal­i­ties, orga­ni­za­tions and com­pa­nies have sent to the par­lia­ment and to the min­istries.

The new cen­ter-right gov­ern­ment is said to focus too much on pow­er plants and alu­minum fac­to­ries. The gov­ern­ment has merged the min­istry of the envi­ron­ment togeth­er with the min­istry of agri­cul­ture and fish­eries. Crit­ics say that the gov­ern­ment has in effect abol­ished the min­istry of the envi­ron­ment, and will now focus on build­ing pow­er plants and fac­to­ries and seri­ous­ly dam­age the envi­ron­ment.

Sig­mundur David was busy when the protests were held because the pres­i­dent of Fin­land was vis­it­ing. But the prime minister´s assis­tant showed up on his behalf, and he was hand­ed the chal­lenge.