Iceland protest ends in clashes

[Vulpix]

BBC: Iceland protest ends in clashes

Protesters in Iceland's capital Reykjavik have clashed with police during a demonstration over the handling of the financial crisis.

Several hundred protesters gathered outside the city's main police station to demand the release of a man jailed in a previous demonstration.

Five people were injured when police used pepper spray to disperse the group after some tried to storm the building.

Iceland faces a sharply contracting economy over the financial collapse.

The group outside the police station broke away from a much larger group of several thousand people who had gathered outside parliament to demand the government's resignation.

Some in the group tried to storm the police building.

The man they wanted to release was later freed, after a fine he owed over a previous demonstration was paid.

There has been a series of protests in Reykjavik calling for the government to resign over its handling of the economy.

The banking system collapsed in October and the currency, the krona, has lost half its value in the past year.

Iceland's government was forced to take over three of its biggest banks last month when they could not keep up with billions of dollars of debt taken on to finance overseas expansion.

The government has taken out $4.6bn (£3.1bn) in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and four of its Nordic neighbours to stay afloat.

[Fortis in Arduis]

It will be interesting to see if there are any increased racial tensions in Iceland as a result of the economic collapse.

[Vulpix]

It will be interesting to see if there are any increased racial tensions in Iceland as a result of the economic collapse.

From wiki:

In December 2007, 33,678 people (13.5% of the total population) who were living in Iceland had been born abroad, including children of Icelandic parents living abroad. 19,000 people (6% of the population) held foreign citizenship. Poles make up the far largest minority nationality [...], and still form the bulk of the foreign workforce. About 10,000 Poles now live in Iceland, 1,500 of them in Reyðarfjörður where they make up 75 percent of the workforce who are building the Fjarðarál aluminium plant.[24] The recent surge in immigration has been credited to a labor shortage because of the booming economy while restrictions on the movement of people from the Eastern European countries that joined the EU/EEA in 2004 have been lifted. Large-scale construction projects in the east of Iceland (see Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project) have also brought in many people whose stay is expected to be temporary.
The Icelandic financial crisis threatens to push many immigrants - mostly from Poland - back home. up

[DarkZarathustra]

Wow, Icelandic forum!