Jon Gnarr Kristinsson finished his latest stand-up comedy tour last week. Now he is ready to embark on a career as mayor of Reykjavik.
The popular comic actor looks set to take charge of the Icelandic capital after his satirical political party won the most votes in local elections over the weekend.
Mr Kristinsson, whose spoof platform included free towels in swimming pools and a polar bear for the city zoo, says his victory signals mass discontent with politicians after the country’s 2008 banking crisis.
“I think they will have to rethink their whole existence after this,” the writer and star of several comedy films and sitcoms told the Financial Times on Monday.
Mr Kristinsson set up the Best party last November as a satire of the political incompetence and, in some cases, corruption that contributed to Iceland’s banking boom and bust.
But the parody was seized on quickly by voters looking for a way to vent their anger against the ruling elite, two months after an official report accused the Icelandic government and regulators of “extreme negligence” in the run-up to the crisis.
Mr Kristinsson’s party won 34.7 per cent of the vote and six of the 15 council seats – just short of an overall majority. He said talks were under way with the centre-left Social Democrats to form a coalition, with him as mayor.
After the banking crash and the volcano, the comedians:
