When Icelandic comedian Jon Gnarr founded The Best Party last December, people thought it was a joke. Indeed, Gnarr satirized Iceland’s corrupt and incompetent political parties, promising free towels at public swimming pools and that he would build a Disneyland at the Reykjavik airport. The idea for the new party came after Iceland’s traumatic banking collapse, and it quickly attracted members from Iceland’s punk rock scene.
But in what appears to be a massive protest vote, The Best Party won the most votes of any party in the recent elections in Reykjavik, propelling Gnarr into the mayor’s office and winning 6 seats on the 15 member city council. But now that they have won the election, will they take their jobs seriously?
You’ll have to be the judge, as Gnarr tries to calm fears about his new party with what has to be one of the best political quotes of the year:
No one has to be afraid of the Best Party, because it is the best party. If it wasn’t, it would be called the Worst Party or the Bad Party. We would never work with a party like that.
Indeed, one of his first actions was to give free admission to city swimming pools for anyone under the age of 18. Who says humor doesn’t have a proper place in real politics?
One Comment
I don’t know anything about this, but good luck to them nonetheless.