Too few and small crumbs for the less fortunate

„The majority agreement is an absurd outcome of what the parties said and advocated during the election campaign, which ultimately largely revolved around the housing crisis, the low-wage policy, and other interests of the less fortunate,“ says Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir, Socialist city councilor, about the majority agreement of Samfylkingin, Viðreisn, Píratar and Vg. „This agreement announces no significant actions to improve the living standards of low-wage earners and other poor people. The crumbs they receive are both few and small.“

Sanna and Daníel Örn Arnarsson, deputy city councilor, point out that amidst declarations that this and that should be aimed for, there are only three tangible things that can be linked to the fierce debate in the election campaign about the living standards of the less fortunate.

Firstly, it is planned to increase the number of social housing units by 500 during the term. „This is in fact a declaration of a continuing housing crisis in The Other Reykjavík, that part of society where low-wage earners live, poor retirees and disabled people, immigrants, renters, and young people on the fringes of the labor and housing markets,“ says Daníel. „Today, about 960 families are on a waiting list for social housing in Reykjavík, and it is known that behind the list are thousands who need social housing but see no point in registering for a waiting list that the city authorities do not intend to clear.“

„The majority intends to pursue an almost unchanged housing policy, and that is a housing policy aimed at making the less well-off bear all the costs of the crisis,“ says Sanna. „The less well-off in Reykjavík have borne enormous rent increases due to the housing crisis, and these increases have eaten up the disposable income of those families who could least afford additional burdens. This is a merciless policy towards poor people, to shift all the costs of the problem onto those who are least able to bear it.“

Next, they point to transportation issues. The majority wants to increase bus frequency during peak hours and abolish fares for children aged 12 and younger who travel accompanied by an adult, whereas today, bus travel is free for children aged six and younger. „How are poor families supposed to utilize this?“ asks Daníel. „Should the single mother in a low-wage job take time off to be able to travel with her child after school for leisure activities or to grandparents for childcare? And for what purpose? So that the bus gets a full fare from her rather than half from the child?“

„We do not understand this proposal,“ says Sanna. „Does the majority fear that children will overuse the service if they get to travel for free by bus? There is some reasoning behind this proposal that we do not understand. People's demands are being met, but in a way that does not benefit them.“

The third point concerns reduced fees in schools, but the Socialists pointed out during the election campaign the growing class division in the school system. In the majority agreement, two things are proposed: on the one hand, that each family should not pay tuition fees for more than one child, and on the other hand, that each family should not pay meal fees for more than two children after 2021.

„School should be free of charge,“ says Sanna. „Free schooling is one of the pillars of the welfare system and a prerequisite for a good society. Although these proposals reduce fees for families with many children, these are only small steps that benefit few. Daníel and I are both grown-up poor children. These proposals would have changed nothing for us or our poor mothers. Today, there are many children who live in the same circumstances as we did. There is nothing in this agreement that will benefit those children. And that is sad.“

Sanna and Daníel point out that they made to the majority partiesan offerof support for seven issues, which the Socialists emphasized during the election campaign. These were clear proposals to combat the housing crisis, the low-wage policy, the powerlessness of the less fortunate, growing class division, and deteriorating living standards.

„Nothing in this agreement manages to touch upon what we proposed,“ says Daníel. „The agreement reveals that the majority parties live in a different Reykjavík than we Socialists. If people compare our proposals and the majority agreement, it becomes clear how much truth lay in the Socialist election campaign, which was partly conducted under the title The Other Reykjavík. A large part of the city's residents live in a reality that the politics in the City Hall do not manage to touch, do not want to see, and do not intend to respond to.“

Sanna seizes on this. „The majority agreement outlines what our role as Socialists will be during the term,“ she says. „We need to become city councilors for those people whom the majority agreement overlooks and fails to reach; the people whom the City Hall neither wants to see nor hear.“