Græntfjall – 1 (1)
B. Ernestisson; Lúthersdóttir, Bensson, T. Ernestisson, Vilbertsdóttir(72’); Hólmarsdóttir, Álvgeirsdóttir
(85’ Miansdóttir
), Guttisdóttir, Kristoffersdóttir
(41’)
New Lusitania – 0 (0)
The Snow Wolves advanced to their first ever Cup of Harmony semifinal with 1–0 win over New Lusitania in just about as assured a result as the single-goal scoreline could permit. Normally stereotyped as a team of ‘BFG’s, the playing XI lacked Jason Þórhallursson, Hjörleifur Reynarsson, Hrærekur Jvarsson or Álfar Ásvaldursson, and scored through a goal created by 5’3” Sara Kristoffersdóttir, set up by 5’2” Amanda Guttisdóttir, and finished off by 5’0” Lilly Wolfgangsdóttir. At least Björnólfur Ernestisson put his height to good use warding off some nerve-jangling final chances as New Lusitania fought to the 90th minute. But the 90th minute arrived, and with it news of a chance to meet up with Rushmori regional rivals Mytanija for a shot at Cup of Harmony glory.
Or at least, as much “glory” as comes from making the final of the Cup of Harmony. Which is not very much glory, really.
In any case, Mytanija bring a decidedly different challenge, and initial signs are a return to something to the formation that Igrene Cantor inherited at the start of the tournament, with the key difference between the omission of Jvarsson, whose failure to recover from his hamstring strain ended his tournament. Replacing him with Johanna Álvgeirsdóttir gives the midfield a decidedly different shape. Ásvaldursson will feature as a lone defensive midfielder in front of a back four, fortified by the return of Reynarsson, who have now not conceded for five consecutive games. Eiríka Jonathansdóttir is fit again (unfortunately for Wolfgangsdóttir). The biggest call is to revert to Hanne Heikkisdóttir on the left and leave Kristoffersdóttir on the bench, though not, perhaps, for the whole 90 minutes.
Starting XI against Mytanija: B. Ernestisson; Lúthersdóttir, Bensson, Reynarsson, Vilbertsdóttir (c); Ásvaldursson; Álvgeirsdóttir, Guttisdóttir; Jonathansdóttir, Dannysdóttir, Heikkisdóttir
Fight for the leadership of Græntfjall’s right wing begins following disastrous election
The streets of Háttmark saw a celebratory atmosphere this past weekend as Zóphonías Juliusson was formally invested as Prime Minister after reaching a coalition deal with the Progressive Liberals. The defection of ten members of his party (and two Progressive Liberals) could not prevent him forming a majority in the Thing, and while precise policy details are yet to emerge, few crowding the streets around the Höll waving red flags as Juliusson met with Queen Júlíana seemed to care about the specifics of tax rates. Despite promises of an action-packed “day one” full of robust policy announcements, in the end Juliusson issued just half a dozen Cabinet Directives, the most consequential being to establish a parliamentary enquiry into Græntfjaller actions in Montaña Verde. “The work of governing is an ongoing conversation, one we are just beginning,” he said in remarks at the Thing the next day. Part of that conversation will be who leads the response.
Sigjón Þjóðbjörnsson
Formally, the NDF leader is now Leader of the Opposition. His party’s late collapse in the polls has received differing diagnoses. Some attribute it to a series of scandals such as his attacking a journalist who recorded video of the assault, or to his party’s inexperience at ground-level campaigning; others have suggested the polls always overestimated the NDF’s base level of support and the final result was simply a more accurate reflection of long term voting intention. “There are many people who, in the heat of last summer, were willing to say they were for the NDF, but once they actually got into the ballot box, they were never going to tick that box,” says Bertel Árbjörnsson, Professor of Psephological Hindsight at the University of Waltenberg. The scale of the NDF collapse should also not obscure the scale of their achievement, he says. “This was a minority party that struggled to make the Fraktion for years. Under Þjóðbjörnsson’s leadership, they have faulted into position as the undisputed leading party of the right.”
Veteran political journalist Magndís Rútsdóttir is not so sure about that. “His performance as Leader of the Opposition will be important. Holding the government to account, trying to split the coalition, forensic approaches to parliamentary debate: none of these are his strengths.” She also points out that NDF had success largely by attracting disaffected Left-slate voters. “They ran as a populist party that tried to portray themselves as talking about the values the Left-slate used to represent. That makes it hard for them to now pivot to leading the center-right.” Rútsdóttir nonetheless acknowledges that Þjóðbjörnsson is “best placed of anyone” to lead a right wing resurgence. “He’s starting from the advantage of having the biggest parliamentary backing and the biggest public profile.”
Christoffer Sandrosson
With David Austmannsson’s formal resignation as leader of the Blue-Greens being submitted the morning after the election, the race is now on the lead the center-right party. Early front runner is Christoffer Sandrosson, the former education minister. Nicknamed “Call me” in Hvítursalur circles for his habit of inviting people to “call me Chris”, Sandrosson is young, telegenic, and charismatic. He’s managed to straddle the political divides with his own party: associated with Austmannsson’s liberalizing wing prior to his appointment, he drifted to the right once in office. “Sandrosson was a particularly skilful navigator of the ‘new culture wars’,” explains columnist Edgar Jansson. “He seemed to understand that the general public weren’t really on board with a stridently anti-colonialist curriculum, or with modernizing sex education.” He was particularly noted for his shuttering of several Muslim schools in Háttmark, accused of gender segregation and of poor teaching standards, which led to protests outside his office. “All of which polled pretty well with 99% of the public, of course,” says Árbjörnsson.
According to Rútsdóttir, Sandrosson’s battles with the teachers’ union and the civil servants over his education policies both played extremely well with the conservative base. “However, in a lot of ways he’s a fairly orthodox liberal-conservative centrist,” she said. “He voted for gay marriage and decriminalization of marijuana, he was seen as one of the leading ‘wets’ on the welfare reform bill.” She also says that he is unpopular among Blue-Green colleagues, who say he spent too much of the election campaign jockeying for the coming leadership battle rather than trying to staunch the Blue-Green losses. “Few in the parliamentary party thought they would win the election, but some feel they could have held onto 10 or 15 more seats with a more committed effort from some of the front benchers, such as Sandrosson.” Though he is yet to announce a leadership bid, Sandrosson did admit over the weekend that it was time for the Blue-Greens to “reflect on their future” and that he wanted “to be a big part of that future”.
Naomi Samuelsdóttir
Technically, the first candidate to actually announce for the leadership election was Manuel Valsteinnsson, radical right-wing backbencher, considered a fringe prospect. But the first candidate with any serious heft has been Naomi Samuelsdóttir. An energetic young minister whose rapid political ascent saw her begin the last government on the back benches and make her way up to the Energy Ministry, she’s seen as one of the party’s leading soft-right liberals. Launching her campaign for leadership with a promise for a “Blue-Green party for everyone”, she has already won the endorsement of former justice minister Hlíf Karrisdóttir, who during the election was the first to break ranks with Austmannsson during the campaign. “I’ve lost count of how many articles I’ve seen about Naomi as the future of the party,” says Blue-Green activist Bogey Larisdóttir. “The big question about her is whether the future is now or… still in the future.”
One of “Dave’s Darlings”, the intake of young women elected at the last election after Austmannsson challenged his grassroots party to be more representative of Græntfjall than the recurrent “pale, stale, male” slate of candidates, Samuelsdóttir distinguished herself by breaking to the left of the party on several issues, such as foreign policy and welfare reform. “Calling her on the left is an oversimplification, though,” warns Árbjörnsson. “She’s one of a growing number of women on the right who’ve coopted the language of feminist emancipation to criticize Islam, for example,” he said. “If the culture wars are going to be a bigger feature of Græntfjaller politics going forward, that’s definitely one way the right could redefine themselves.” Her youth and inexperience nonetheless remain serious challenges, says Rútsdóttir. “Part of the deal with people being willing to put up with Austmannsson’s [alleged – Ed.] corruption for so long was that they knew about it: he didn’t have many secrets. With someone like Naomi, there’s no telling what skeletons she has buried.”
Lennart Sandelsson
Not all the leading candidates are “modernizers” looking to drag the party to the liberal-left. “The narrative of old Left-slate voters flocking to the NDF is overplayed,” says Jansson. “The truth is a lot of NDF voters used to Blue-Green or Liberal-Conservative, and drifted right. They felt the parties of the right were no longer strong enough on immigration or culturally representative of the old Græntfjall.” If such a tendency plays out, Lennart Sandelsson’s name is likely to crop up again and again as a potential new leader – despite having already publicly said he was not interested. The anti-immigration hardliner was a persistent thorn in the side of Austmannsson’s centrist government; he was one of the leading advocates of breaking the coalition with the Liberal-Conservatives and negotiating a new deal with the NDF (a deal which, in hindsight, would have saved the government from collapse). Sandelsson’s politics are adroitly summarized in his twii.tur profile, which list his “interests” as “flag, faith, and family”. And “ferret farming”, but that appears less immediately politically relevant.
“A lot of party activists, the people who actually mail flyers and drive in rockery signs and vote,” says Larisdóttir, “Don’t like the drift to the center, feel the party is too focussed on Háttmark, too liberal on immigration. But they don’t like the NDF thugs either, they remember the NDF’s republican campaigns in the past. They’re a bit lost right now in the conversation. But they’re probably more likely to vote Blue-Green than the wavering centrist liberals who all the other candidates seem intent on winning back.” The Progressive Liberals “ate into” the Blue-Green base, according to Árbjörnsson, which explains the current direction of thinking. “Young professionals, middle class parents in cosmopolitan neighborhoods, and women voters, are the three big groups where we saw huge demographic swings from Blue-Green to Progressive Liberal,” he says. “A man like Sandelsson isn’t going to win back any of them.” Nonetheless, a “Let Lennart Be Lennart” grassroots campaign is already underway among party activists to draft Sandelsson into the race.
Eiríka Jonathansdóttir
Possibly the only successful right-winger in the country right now…
Also in the paper:
- NEWS: Activity build-up at GANAX Cosmodrome fuels fears of conspiracy to establish fully automated luxury gay space communism
- BUSINESS: Left-slate-proofing your investment portfolio
- POLITICS: Juliusson unveils new cabinet: “It’s made of teak”
- SCIENCE: Amateur astronomers report unusual sighting, “probably no big deal or anything”
- SPORT: Wanjirsdóttir breaks the color line, putting pressure on football to catch up
(72’), Brkljacic 
(87’), J. Odonelec 
