WI: Icelandic-style revolutions all across the Eurozone due to austerity

What if Iceland style revolutions happen all across the EU due to people being fed up with austerity and the banks? What will the result be? How will the US react? How will China and the other BRICS(China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Korea) countries react?
 

amphibulous

Banned
What if Iceland style revolutions happen all across the EU due to people being fed up with austerity and the banks?

The "revolution" was less violent than protests in, say, Greece. If the Greeks did insist their government not repay the Germans etc then, well, to be honest, the Greek economy would collapse. You're confusing Iceland's circumstances (one off bank debts from speculation) with eg Greece's and Italy's (economies dependent on a huge subsidy from Germany.)
 
The US will be upset- but the media will ignore it. One wonders how it might affect other things. Iceland's been a big supporter of Wikileaks, thanks to all the information they revealed.
 
Iceland did'nt have a Revolution, their was protesting and people voting the previous government out of office and giving the newly elected legislature a mandate to change things.

Secondly Iceland did not do this because of Austerity (this was before the Eurozone crisis) they did so because so much of the Icelandic economy was based on banking and when the Banks failed it resulted in more than half of the countries economy collapsing.
 

Devvy

Donor
Iceland didn't have a revolution, but it did have a different style of "civil uprising", which was down to some unique circumstances.

Firstly, there was a lot of corruption going on in Iceland, with rich people squirrelling money out of businesses and into their back pocket. In Iceland, more then the rest of western Europe, it's not what you know but who you know, which leads to an even higher perception of corruption (ie. fathers getting kids nice and well paid jobs for doing little in their companies).

Secondly, as noted, the banks went bust. The Icelandic Government spent a huge amount of money to reimburse Icelandic savers who lost money from the banks. Bear in mind this is a country of 330,000ish people - not a very large population to spread the cost across.

Thirdly, due to the EFTA/EEA, Iceland was bound to treat all European citizens equally, and significant amounts of UK and Dutch savers had money in Icelandic banks. Iceland decided not to reimburse those savers, in breach of the treaty (rightly or wrongly - granted Iceland would of struggled to pay them, but it is in breach of the treaty). The UK and Dutch Governments stepped in to reimburse savers in the UK and Netherlands who lost money in the Icelandic accounts. The UK and Netherlands then tried to bill Iceland to reimburse themselves for the money - which if I remember right was approximately £4,000,000,000. Bearing in mind the small population, I think this worked out at approximately £12,000 per tax payer in Iceland. Not a small amount of money. Iceland went to referendum twice over the matter, with the population refusing to pay the UK and Dutch Governments. The matter was in the EFTA courts last time I checked.

Mix all three factors together, you have a pissed off population with a clear and united "thing" to be angry at - not an easy combination of factors.

The problems in southern Europe are different in that the Governments themselves have massively overspent.
 
Iceland's minor size and history are also a factor which defines this kind of government change.

Basically, you just need a good portion of the inhabitants of Reykjavik (which is a fairly medium sized town) to act together. That is not much.

Also, Iceland has an incredibly long tradition of basis democracy, at least in their understanding. That helps.
 
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