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🇮🇸 Iceland /Elections & Politics

Children’s author lashes out at ministers over 82.2 million-krona cut to library fund

From Morgunblaðið · () Icelandic

Translated from Icelandic and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Icelandic children’s author Gunnar Helgason attacked the government over an 82.2 million-krona reduction in next year’s Library Fund allocation.
  • The fund’s budget would fall from 224.5 million krona to 142.3 million, a move the Icelandic Writers’ Association chair said would particularly harm children’s authors.
  • Helgason accused Culture Minister Logi Einarsson of violating the constitution, citing a legal opinion about earlier reductions and audiobook lending.

Children’s author Gunnar Helgason has run out of patience with the government over its planned cut to Iceland’s Library Fund. The budget allocation is set to fall by 82.2 million krona, from 224.5 million to 142.3 million.

Helgason said the reduction made the government’s statements about improving children’s literacy and education meaningless. He argued that repeated cuts to authors’ income could drive talent out of the sector, while accusing the government of taking money from one of the country’s lowest-paid professions, children’s writing.

He directed his sharpest criticism at Culture, Innovation and Higher Education Minister Logi Einarsson. “Thank you very much. And go jump in … I cannot be bothered to be polite, since you are giving us the middle finger yourself. When politicians think they can keep taking our income away again and again ... THAT is rude!!” Helgason wrote.

I cannot be bothered to be polite, since you are giving us the middle finger yourself. When politicians think they can keep taking our income away again and again ... THAT is rude!!

· Gunnar HelgasonThe children’s author attacked Culture Minister Logi Einarsson over the proposed funding reduction.

He also said Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir and Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir should be ashamed, while saying he could rely on Progressive Party leader Lilja Dögg Alfreðsdóttir and Independence Party MP Bryndís Haraldsdóttir.

Helgason accused Einarsson of breaching Iceland’s constitution. He referred to a legal submission from the law firm Réttur, which concluded that an earlier cut to the fund in 2014 had been unconstitutional. According to Helgason, audiobook lending was placed under the fund in 2021 because lending books in audio form without payment violated Article 72 of the constitution. He said Lilja Alfreðsdóttir had then increased the allocation in line with rising lending, before it was reduced again.

The author said the latest cut would hit children’s writers particularly hard because five of the most popular authors in Iceland’s libraries write children’s books.

It is clearly impossible to believe anything you say when you talk about increasing children’s literacy and education.

· Gunnar HelgasonHelgason challenged the government’s education rhetoric after the budget cut.
About this summary

Originally published by Morgunblaðið in Icelandic. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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