President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson talked at length about the departure of the US military from Iceland in his speech given when Iceland’s parliament, Althingi, was set yesterday.
He said that the dispute over the military presence had prevented progress on all levels of society by diminishing solidarity and weakening the creative force behind new innovations. “The strength that we could have used to facilitate progress we used in battles amongst ourselves,” he said. This is reported in Fréttabladid today.
The President also spoke about environmental issues and said that various signs indicated that the nation’s position on the environment could turn out to be a source of conflict similar to what was generated by the military presence in the past. “Now that the dispute over the presence of the US military has been resolved it is essential that disputes over the utilization of Iceland’s natural resources do not create a new rift,” he said.
