There is a new mayor in town
Einar Þorsteinsson is the new mayor of Reykjavík. mbl.is/Kristinn Magnússon
“No one is born into this role and people are shaped by the tasks they are assigned. I would like to be mayor with a cold head and a warm heart. It’s important to show operational responsibility, but at the same time, you need to show warmth and understanding of the sensitive issues we have at the municipal level.”
This is what Einar Þorsteinsson says when asked how he intends to approach his new role as the mayor of Reykjavík.
Þorsteinsson worked as a journalist for a long time and said that as a result, he got to know the society differently than many others. “I was tired of covering all kinds of injustice. No matter how much you covered certain issues, nothing changed, and gradually dawned upon me that I needed to go into politics to be able to change something.”
– This just happens like that?
“Yes, actually. As a media journalist, you’re serving and informing and showing the society as it is. Then there are issues that follow you,” he replies.
– Can you understand this as meaning that you intend to be the mayor of the people?
“Yes, first and foremost. Of course, my duties are also with the companies and the economy, but in the bottom line, we’re working for the people. “Public servants” are those called who go into politics in the United States, and that’s how I see myself, as a servant of the public.”
City Hall in Reykjavík. mbl.is/Jón Pétur
Had faith in results
There’s a certain distance to the election victory that the Progressive Party won in the spring of 2022, which to many was a surprising win. How does Þorsteinsson view this success today; did he and his people bring something to the table that others didn’t?
“Of course it was a journey into the unknown, as Progressives had not been successful in the previous elections and did not have a city council member. After I got started in politics, I always believed that we would be successful, but at the same time I knew that we had to be very careful. We both went as a group and I also went alone in the neighbourhoods, talking to people and we felt that there was a call for change and new people. I just came to the door as I am, and people might have known me from my previous work, which definitely helped. I’ve been sincere since the beginning of this journey – I want to help the people in the city and solve the problems that we are facing.”
Can be killed again and again
Þorsteinsson was not an uncontroversial reporter. In the last years as a TV reporter, he was often alone with his interviewee on the set, and didnt waver from asking difficult questions and being persistent if there was no answer. Some people gave him credit for for being persistent, but others thought he was sometimes too aggressive with his interviewes, even disrespectful. Can one assume that people learned to know his character there and found his characteristics needed for the role of mayor?
“It may well be, I won’t judge. Winston Churchill once said that it’s enough to kill one man once in a war, but you can kill a politician again and again. You may not win all the battles all, but you still cannot be afraid to take the fight - and I am not afraid.”
The full version of the Icelandic version of Orri Páll Ormarsson’s interview with Einar Þorsteinsson is in the Sunday paper of Morgunblaðið.
Translation Dóra Ósk Halldórsdóttir doraosk@mbl .is
