Icelandic President Johannesson re-elected with 90% of the vote

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Iceland re-elected triumphantly Saturday June 27 for four years its outgoing president Gudni Johannesson, with almost 90% of the vote.

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According to the results available around midnight local and GMT, relating to 60,000 votes, Gudni Johannesson came in first with 90.7% of the votes before his only rival, the populist right-wing candidate Gudmundur Franklin Jonsson (9.5%). Either more or less the score predicted by surveys in recent weeks.

With this academic, history professor, without political label, the volcanic island of 365,000 inhabitants chose continuity, twelve years after the spectacular bankruptcy of its banks in 2008, and at the dawn of a new global economic crisis due to coronavirus.

252,217 voters were invited to go to the polling stations. Gudmundur Jonsson quickly recognized his defeat. "  I send my congratulations to Gudni and his family,  " he said, acknowledging that he never really thought he was doing a double-digit score.

Coming to vote on a bicycle near Reykjavik, President Johannesson had said on Saturday morning to AFP that he wanted to "  continue in the same direction  " in the event of re-election. Johannesson, the youngest president elected since independence in 1944, has enjoyed strong popularity since taking office in 2016.

Virus extinguished on the island

In the parliamentary system of the Nordic island, the head of state has an essentially ceremonial role. It has only one real power, and it is important: a constitutional right to block the enactment of a law and submit it to a referendum.

Without huge stakes, the Icelandic presidential can claim a special place in the history of gender equality. In 1980, it led to the election of the first female head of state in the world, in the person of Vigdis Finnbogadottir, 90 years old today.

After Serbia last Sunday, and before Poland and France this Sunday, Iceland is the second country to hold an election since the start of containment measures in Europe. Apart from precautionary measures (distance of two meters and hydroalcoholic gels in offices), the epidemic, practically extinct for weeks on the Nordic island, had no impact.

( AFP )

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