I attended my first Icelandic protest in Reykjavik on New Year’s Eve, and here is some of the footage that I thought might be interesting to share.
Basically, several hundred protesters met at this square downtown, as they usually do, and marched across the street to the Hotel Borg, which is where there was a live TV broadcast being filmed inside, including certain Icelandic politicians. It’s my understanding that it’s a year-end, annual broadcast where they discuss the country’s progress and certain political and economic developments.
Some of the protesters climbed a barricade at the back of the hotel, set the cables on fire (at which point, TV screens throughout Iceland went black due to “technical difficulties”) and then rushed the back of the Hotel, right outside of where the show was being taped. I think some of the footage may be a little out of order, though I couldn’t see everything that happened; I thought the protestors immediately sat down and started chanting so the people inside could hear, and I didn’t see any initial resistance.
Given the holiday, some of the protesters lit fireworks and flares outside of the hotel, which (to an American, at least) sounded like gunshots, and it was a little scary. The Viking Squad (robocops) showed up and the police started pushing everyone back, but some of the protesters wouldn’t move, so they were sprayed with tear gas. I don’t think anyone was arrested and, to my knowledge, it was the second time in the last year that protesters were sprayed with tear gas. We breathed a little of it in, and I can’t imagine what that would have been like to have been sprayed in the eyes with it. We took the escalating violence as our cue to leave.
I’m not really sure how I feel about what happened or this footage. My initial impression was that this would likely not have happened in the US, as everyone who trespassed on the Hotel property would have been immediately arrested, though who knows? I don’t know if emotions escalated because it was the last day of a terrible year, economically and politically, or if this is a sign for things to come in Iceland. The footage doesn’t really show the hundreds of protesters who remained peacefully protesting across the street while most of this was taking place.
At any rate, it’s clear that Icelanders and their political leaders have reached a standstill of sorts; Icelanders are demanding new elections early this year, and it appears that the only way for this to happen at this point is if the country’s President agrees to it, which doesn’t appear likely.
