Panama Papers and the Icelandic Protests
This past week, protests occurred in Iceland after the, (now former) Prime Minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, was found out to be involved in the Panama Papers. What are the Panama Papers? The papers are the over 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca. The papers revealed how the rich have been using foreign tax regimes to avoid taxes.
The Icelandic protests occurred outside of the Icelandic parliament building in Rekyjavík. Over 30,000 protesters were in attendance, which is about one tenth of the entire population of Iceland. Iceland suffered a devastating financial collapse in 2008 and has been in great debt to tax collectors around the world. Sigmund vowed to protect Iceland from said collectors, but he owns a large amount of money within these firms, meaning that he is part of the firms he vowed to protect Iceland from. Sigmundur was confronted in a live interview, but left without answering. He later announced that he would be resigning from his position as Prime Minister and has since been replaced by Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson. The protests quickly followed. One of the protesters recounts her experience as follows:
“I think everyone was just thankful for the good weather. It was loud, people playing with drums, shouting, singing, playing instruments, chanting. It was kind of interesting to see the mix of protesters and curious tourists who huddled around and took pictures. There were reporters with cameras set up everywhere, a group of policemen, no more than seven if I recall correctly, stood guard in front of the building and though there were foods and paper being hurled at the building, everyone was generally considerate of them. One of the great things about Iceland is the youth’s involvement in the political side of our country. I met lots of my friends there, standing in the front chanting and yelling. It was really crowded considering how small of a nation we are. People sat from atop roofs on nearby buildings and watched. A group of lively teenage boys on a particularly building held up a large Icelandic flag and shouted so loud they could be heard down the street. Sigmundur and the Icelandic word for sociopath are pronounced similarly and that was the general choice of chant.” -Elín Þóra Ágústsdóttir
To conclude, this protest will likely be the first in a series that will occur as a result of the Panama Papers Scandal. Many other national leaders have ties to the scandal and it would not be surprising if protests were to occur in other countries that have been harmed by the scandal.