Government talks: “A beautiful child is being born”

The coalition talks between the Social Democratic Alliance, the Liberal Reform Party and the People’s Party will continue today, but the location of the meeting will not be announced.

This is what Inga Sæland, chairwoman of the People’s Party, said in an interview with mbl.is.

She says that Kristrún Frostadóttir, chair of the Social Democratic Alliance, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, chair of the Liberal Reform Party, and herself will meet this morning to continue the talks.

Hoping for good news by the end of the day

She says she is optimistic, as before, and hopes to have good news by the end of the day.

“It’s just being born. "A beautiful child is being born," Sæland says.

"Hopefully we'll have something fun to say after today. We'll see."

First meeting was yesterday

After Kristín Frostadóttir was given the mandate yesterday to start talks with the other parties in an attempt to form the next government, she met with Gunnarsdóttir and Sæland.

Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, chair of the Liberal Reform Party, said that yesterday‘s meeting was productive.

„We realized that there are many areas that can be agreed upon,“ she said and added that the next two or three days would give a better picture of whether cooperation between the Social Democratic Alliance, the Liberal Reform Party, and the People‘s Party would be possible.

Gunnarsdóttir noted that major challenges are now facing us and that the chairmen need to find a certain framework and a landing on these issues.

The economy front and center

Gunnarsdóttir said that at the forefront was the economy.

“We placed great emphasis on bringing down inflation and interest rates, showing restraint in state operations, examining and considering all aspects, whether it is in public procurement or state financial management. It is very important to us.”

All agree on reducing the number of ministries

When asked, Gunnarsdóttir said that the conversation on European affairs did not start yesterday. The conversation was general.

She also thinks it is good to have managed to discuss the reduction of the number of ministries, which the three chairmen agree on. However, no decisions have been made in this regard.

“Now we are going to start gathering information, getting numerical data and what I also thought was good to find was that we were completely in agreement about having this data in front of us, going through certain reports, reading, working, and so on.”

Then Gunnarsdóttir says that the communication was good between the parties yesterday and that the next two to three days will give a better picture of the potential collaboration between them.

Important to have humor for ourselves

Now there has been talk of the Valkyrie Government, what do you think of this name?

“Are we talking about Urður, Verðandi, and Skuld ? Yes, yes, there is quite a charm to this,” Gunnarsdóttir says and continues:

“There has to be some lightness in this and we have to have a sense of humor for ourselves. I think humor gets us a long way. It has brought us in the Liberal Reform Party a long way and while we are very aware of the tasks ahead, it is also good to have some lightness along with that.”