Yesterday, President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson called a press conference at his residence Bessastaðir after being handed a petition signed by more than 30,000 people—one tenth of the nation—asking the president to run for his fifth four-year term.
That would mean that he would be President of Iceland for twenty consecutive years.
President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.
The online petition was organized by a group led by former Progressive party Minister Guðni Ágústsson.
In his New Year’s speech, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson indicated that he would step down and not run for office again.
Vísir.is reports that the President announced at the news conference that he would now rethink his decision and give the nation a final answer within a week.
No real contender has formally announced their candidacy as of yet.
Was the president plotting this course of events?
“No,” said the President at Bessastaðir yesterday. “I said clearly in my New Year’s speech that I would step down… hoping the nation would find the perfect path to the next president.”
In vísir.is today mathematician and member of the Constitutional Assembly of Iceland Pawel Bartoszek sends the president this message: “Sorry Ólafur Ragnar, stop trying, Jean Dujardin got the Oscar as best actor, and Woody Allen for the best script.”
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