ICELAND HAS become the first European country in which a government has decided to have fresh elections after the international economic crisis provoked continuing street demonstrations and violent incidents over police retaliation.
Other countries too are feeling the strain of social protests as the recession bites and governments respond with public spending cuts and tax increases. In the last two weeks Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria have seen this happen, while in Greece the violent demonstrations that broke out last month over the shooting dead of a young protester by a policemen have continued sporadically and have now been taken up by farmers. They were sufficiently serious to convince French president Nicolas Sarkozy not to introduce a school reform for fear of provoking a similar student protest in France.
The economic meltdown in Iceland has seen its major banks collapse, its currency in free fall, many savings and pensions destroyed and intervention by the International Monetary Fund with an austerity rescue package. A persistent protest movement outside the parliament has drawn a variety of people outraged over these events and this week police fired tear gas to disperse them. If elections are held in May, as expected, it will be difficult indeed to put together a new coalition government, since established parties are also in free fall and newer ones are still in formation. Also looming are decisions on whether to apply for membership of the European Union and the euro, which many believe would have protected the country in this convulsion.
Events have not gone that far elsewhere, but there are similar pressures on governments most exposed to the same economic gale. Thousands of people have demonstrated in Lithuania and Latvia against budgetary retrenchments and tax hikes, shocked by the speed and severity of their impact. In Bulgaria and Greece the economic protests overlap with wider concerns about corruption and incompetence. So far Spanish, Portuguese, Italian – and Irish – streets have been quieter, despite similar complaints.
These social protests are being carefully monitored by neighbouring governments and information about them is being pooled through the EU institutions in Brussels. They will certainly be a prominent part of the discussion on the economic situation throughout the EU at the March summit of its leaders. By then, given the pace of change and events, other governments may be going to the polls and other protests will have been organised.