Iceland braces for impact of public backlash on international compensation deal

Iceland braces for consequences of Icesave vote

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A proposal to use taxpayer funds to pay off Iceland’s substantial debts to foreign governments seemed likely to be defeated in a national referendum Saturday.

Opinion polls indicated that a strong majority intend to reject the $5.3 billion plan to compensate the governments of Britain and the Netherlands for money those governments paid out to depositors in their countries who lost savings in a failed Icelandic bank.

“I voted no,” said Rognvaldur Hoskuldsson, a 36-year-old machine technologist, after casting his vote Saturday morning. “It makes no sense to say yes when the UK and Dutch have put a better deal on the table in talks this week. Also we have to send a message that these countries are not going to profit from this situation.”

Many Icelanders who have been badly hurt by the country’s financial collapse say they don’t want to be bullied by larger nations seeking to profit from Iceland’s severe economic problems.

A rejection of the deal because of the public backlash would create another obstacle on Iceland’s difficult road out of a deep recession. A “no” vote could further jeopardize its credit rating and make it harder to access much-needed bailout money from the International Monetary Fund.

It could also harm Iceland’s chances of being granted entry to the European Union.

Some voters seemed undecided even after the polls opened. Kristofer Hannesson, 27, said he was not yet sure but was leaning toward voting against the plan.

“I feel that I should go and vote no to send the message to the British and the Dutch that we, the innocent Icelandic public, are not going to let them walk all over us,” he said.

Iceland has been desperately seeking a revised deal with its European creditors since President Olafur R. Grimsson tapped into public anger and used a rarely invoked power to refuse to sign the so-called Icesave bill into law in January, triggering the national poll.

At the heart of the dispute is the payment of $3.5 billion to Britain and $1.8 billion to the Netherlands as compensation for funds that those governments paid out to around 340,000 nationals with savings in the collapsed Icesave internet bank.

Britain and the Netherlands offered better terms last week — including a floating interest rate on the debt plus 2.75 percent, representing a significant cut on the 5.5 percent under the original deal hammered out at the end of last year.

The British say their “best and final offer has been turned down.”

But Iceland continues to hold out for more, aware that any new deal must win substantial political and public support to avoid another veto by the president.

Locals largely view the deal both as intimidation by bigger nations and an unfair result of their own government’s failure to curtail the excessive spending of a handful of bank executives that led the country into its current malaise.

Because of Iceland’s tiny population, around 320,000, the original deal would have required each person to pay around $135 a month for eight years — the equivalent of a quarter of an average four-member family’s salary.

That’s a step too far for many ordinary Icelanders who resent forking out the money to compensate for losses incurred by potentially wealthier foreign investors who chased the high interest rates offered by Icesave.

There’s also residual anger that Britain invoked anti-terrorist legislation to freeze the assets of Icelandic banks at the height of the crisis, prompting the worst diplomatic spat between the two countries since Cod Wars of the 1970s over fishing rights in the North Atlantic.

“I am going to say no on Saturday because it’s not fair and justifiable that the Icelandic nation should pay for other people’s mistakes,” said Benedikt Mewes, 33, a cashier at the National Post Office in Reykjavik.

Officials within Iceland’s Social Democrat-Left Green coalition government, whose authority is being challenged by the weekend poll, acknowledge the repercussions of a failure to settle the dispute.

Although the International Monetary Fund has never explicitly linked delivery of a $4.6 billion loan to the reaching of an Icesave deal, it is committed to Iceland repaying its international debt — the months taken to reach the original Icesave deal were responsible for holding up the first tranche of IMF funds last year.

There are also fears that Britain and the Netherlands will take a hard-line stance on Iceland’s application to join the EU and refuse to approve the start of accession talks until an Icesave deal is signed into law.

Associated Press Writers Helga Armadottir contributed to this story.