"I feel like people voted with their hearts"

“I haven’t slept much, but I feel incredibly good. My heart is full of gratitude and also a lot of humility towards the trust the people are showing me and maybe the fact that there was a record-breaking turnout and I feel like the people voted with their hearts,” Halla Tómasdóttir, Iceland’s newly-elected president, told mbl.is earlier today.

Big news to take in

When asked, Tómasdóttir said she hadn’t taken all of this in.

“Of course, we stayed up here for the count, me and my closest family and friends. Then we took a moment and then we interviewed the media. Now, we’re setting up here outside for the famous [presidential] wave,” she laughs.

Over 200 people were outside her home on Klapparstígur in downtown Reykjavík.

“I wonder if I’ll be able to take this in for a while, at least not until I’ve had a good night’s sleep and maybe read all the beautiful messages I’ve received. This is, of course, huge news for anyone who gets this honor from their nation,” Tómasdóttir says.

Young people active

Tómasdóttir put a lot of emphasis on young people and speaking to them during her campaign. When asked about what she thinks made the difference in reaching this group, she says two things were most important.

“On the one hand, generational equality is important to me. The issues I have put to the forefront in my campaign are because I want the next generation to take over a society and a country that gives them at least equal opportunities to those we have enjoyed.

I have always said that we have no right to take out profits or growth during our lifetime and at the expense of their future. I think that young people, and, people of all ages, welcome the message that we, as power and influence, should take responsibility for what awaits them,” she says.

“The other thing is equally necessary, and I think it’s just as important, that we give young people a lot of space in our candidacies, we empower them and trust them. For example, young people handled my TikTok account and just told me what to do. Young women worked on social media with me, many young people with power and influence.

We also had an election commissioner for young people, and an election office for young people, and we tried to draw the attention of the young people, not to the fact that they should vote for me, but rather to the importance of participating in democracy. If we don’t, we might not be able to complain about not having an impact on the future, however, if we do, and especially if we elect a president who wants to give young people power and responsibility and let them take part in shaping society, then there’s a lot more chance that the future will be in line with what we want it to be.”

“A positive and constructive movement is on the rise”

Halla Tómasdóttir says she felt like a winner before the finals, because she felt the support around her.

“I was in Gróska yesterday and watched all these young people and people of all ages wearing scarves around their necks, including the boys. I can tell you that even though we didn’t win, I felt like a winner before I dared to trust the numbers, just by watching because it felt like a movement going on.

It was not about just one candidate but about a movement. And I believe that movement is the catalyst that changes societies. And I'm proud that there's a positive and constructive movement on the rise.

Dared to be brave

One of Halla’s main traits, as well as values, in the past has been courage. But would she have needed courage to run for office a second time?

“Yes, it took quite a bit of courage. It would have been easier not to do it. I’m just going to say it honestly, because it went so well last time, even though it wasn’t easy, that I could just very well enjoy having done it and not having to do it again,” she says.

“However, the difference between 2016 when I was challenged to run and was a little bit responsive to other people’s calls, and now 2024 is that I felt inside that there was a lot of concern in my heart for Iceland and the opportunities it’s facing, but also challenges that I think it’s time to address, that I probably would never have found peace in my soul if I hadn’t decided to be just brave enough to step forward and raise the issue.

The worst thing that would have happened would have been that I would have raised the issue and the best thing that would have happened would have been that I would have had the opportunity to try to do something about it with others because no one does anything courageously alone.”

Tómasdóttir says that it also took courage to move on when people felt they were not doing well enough.

“Like when people were telling me that I was miscalculating and this could even be a disaster for me if it didn’t work out, but I wasn’t worried about that. When the decision was made, I was quite certain in my heart that I had a business and my vision of the office would find its way when more people had the opportunity to meet me.”

“I want to be the president for all”

When asked if she expected such a big difference between her and Katrín Jakobsdóttir when the final numbers came in, she says that she did not.

“I expected things to be very close during the elections and the election night would be even more exciting, that is, I assumed that. However, I found the last few days and weeks some kind of energy in the air. Everywhere we held meetings, we had to add chairs and double the space, so I found this growing buzz and knew that it was not unlikely that something similar would happen as it did in 2016, that there would be more votes than polls were showing. I was completely prepared for that,” she says.

“But I have such respect for Katrín Jakobsdóttir and her service and good character that I was quite expecting that the differences between us would be very narrow. I am humbled to have received more support and grateful, of course, because it is certainly good, but I want to be the president of everyone and also of those who voted for my other co-candidates.”

Want to work with the people

Tómasdóttir says that the family is looking forward to the future.

“Everyone’s smiling here despite a little sleep. I’m so well-married that my husband and I share the vision of wanting to live in a healthy Iceland. He’s a health cook and sports-enthusiast and thinks a lot about that side of things, and I’m very interested in mental and social health.

Shouldn’t we say that’s as well as having two great kids that are just incredibly well-behaved, although I say so myself, that we are eager to serve our great nation and work with the nation. It’s important for me to say that because we want to work with the Icelandic nation on the opportunities and tasks facing us.”