Welcome to the Reykjavík Grapevine’s Iceland Roundup — your weekly fix of local news with a bit of context behind it. This episode features publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson alongside Heimildin editor Aðalsteinn Kjartansson (who hands off to Grapevine editor-in-chief Bart Cameron partway through) and long-time contributor Sindri Eldon. Between them, they run through the stories that have been doing the rounds over the past few weeks.
On the agenda this week:
U.S. ambassadorial nominee Billy Long has managed to entertain Icelanders again before he’s even touched down. The backstory: he once joked about wanting to run ICE, a quip that apparently got lost in translation somewhere, and Donald Trump ended up appointing him ambassador to Iceland instead.
More recently, during a Congressional session, Long suggested he might skip the ambassador title altogether and become Iceland’s first governor — a wink at the idea that Iceland could wind up as the United States’ 52nd state. Icelanders weren’t particularly amused. The general feeling seemed to be: shouldn’t Greenland be getting that dubious honour first?
Gudbrandur Einarsson, an MP for Viðreisn (the Reform Party), stepped down from Parliament after a story emerged about an alleged attempt to purchase prostitution services in 2012. He told the public he was questioned by police at the time but was never charged. The resignation came just as Vísir was getting ready to publish the story.
On the trade front, President Trump has slapped tariffs on a sweep of Scandinavian countries — along with Germany, France, and the Netherlands — in what looks like pressure on NATO allies tied to the ongoing push to acquire Greenland. Iceland, curiously, isn’t on the list. Whether that’s a deliberate exemption or whether Trump simply forgot Iceland exists is a question people here seem to find both funny and a little unsettling.
Meanwhile, Iceland’s population is looking quite different from how it did even five years ago. There are now 83,950 foreign nationals living in Iceland, accounting for just over 20% of the population — up from 15% five years ago. In some municipalities the numbers are much higher: in Vík í Mýrdal, foreign nationals make up 67.4% of residents. Skaftárhreppur sits at 46% and Bláskógabyggð at 39%. According to Statistics Iceland, at least 44% of people working in the tourism sector are foreign nationals.
