MP for the Progressive Party and chair of the parliament’s finance committee Vigdís Hauksdóttir is in hot water once again. In an interview with Monitor, a supplement in daily Morgunblaðið, yesterday, Vigdís said that parliamentarians are no longer respected as they were 15 years ago.
“The parliamentary staff did not address parliamentarians … People had a lot of respect for parliamentarians … The parliamentary staff should honor these traditions. Today it has become far too casual for my taste.”
Parliamentarians from all parties—even the assistants of leaders of the ruling coalition parties Bjarni Benediktsson and PM Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson—have disputed the comments, saying that they have had a good experience with the parliamentary staff.
The comments come after a string of similarly controversial statements. The parliamentarian was recently in hot water after asking EGF cosmetics company not to advertise in Kvennablaðið (The Women’s Paper) after it published an article about some of the parliamentarian’s worst gaffes.
