Iceland's 'pots and pans revolution': Lessons from a nation that people power helped to emerge from its 2008 crisis all the stronger - Europe - World - The Independent #olsx #onn

Iceland's 'pots and pans revolution': Lessons from a nation that people power helped to emerge from its 2008 crisis all the stronger - Europe - World - The Independent

“I stood in front of the parliament building every lunch hour and asked people, ‘Can you tell me what has happened in this country? Do you have any idea what we can do’?”

Singer-songwriter, poet and gay rights activist Hordur Torfason turns 70 this year. He remembers how Iceland’s “pots and pans revolution” started from small beginnings just days after the government stepped in and nationalised the country’s three biggest banks in October 2008. As the stock market plummeted so did people’s trust in the government. The country’s banking bubble had burst, unemployment had tripled and Torfason recalls rumours that the supermarkets might run out of food.

What started out as daily conversations with ordinary people quickly turned into weekly demonstrations involving thousands. And after five months of escalation, the protesters’ demands were met: the government, the head of the Central Bank and the director of the Financial Supervisory Authority all resigned.

The protests gave the incoming left-leaning coalition government the political space in which to set up an investigations office with the power to prosecute bankers and government officials. This ultimately resulted in the country’s top bankers being charged with crimes such as insider trading and market manipulation and being sent to prison for terms of up to five-and-a-half years.

Protesters gathered outside parliament during National Day celebrations on 15 June (Corbis)
The country’s national court was less harsh on the prime minister, Geir Haarde, who was simply found guilty of neglecting to hold special cabinet meetings to address a crisis that many could see coming.

Whether nationalising banks, jailing bankers, imposing controls on the movement of capital out of the country or holding two national referendums on whether or not to pay back foreign debtors, Iceland’s response to their devastating financial crash bucked all trends. Yet, six years later, the approach seems to have been a resounding success. In March, the IMF praised Iceland for being “one of the top economic performers in Europe over the past several years in terms of economic growth [with] one of the lowest unemployment rates”, and for being on course to pay back its IMF loans early.