Citizenship, 2026 budget, TikTok & exchange students, trans rights & free speech, anti-genocide protests

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The Reykjavík Grapevine's Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to roundup the stories making headlines in recent weeks. On the docket this week are: 
✨ An Italian academic, Roberto Luigi Pagani who has taught Icelandic, and how to read old Icelandic manuscripts at the University of Iceland and lived here since 2014, was refused citizenship because he hasn’t passed a test in Icelandic.
✨The minister of finance, Daði Mar Kristófersson, is introducing next year’s budget this morning. The plan is to run a 15 billion ISK deficit next year, but the plan is to end the deficit in 2027.
✨Morgunblaðið reported this morning that the 40% increase in applications of foreign students who also need a residence permit, may be linked to numerous TikTok videos, promoting the fact that it is free to attend university in Iceland, and furthermore that students can bring their families with them while attending studies in Iceland. The Grapevine has received numerous emails from students who applied to study at the University of Iceland this semester, but whose residence permit was not processed in time for them to attend. ✨On Monday last week, RÚV decided it was time to platform MP and former podcast bro, Snorri Másson, who’s been maintaining in interviews that there is no freedom of speech with regards to discussing trans-rights and policies in Iceland. RÚV brought him on to debate Þorbjörg Þorvaldsdóttir, the spokesperson for Iceland’s National Queer Organizations. What followed were 20 minutes of Snorri playing victim, while making no solid points in the debate and constantly interrupting Þorbjörg. The following day it was reported that the Police’s special forces had kept a watch on Snorri’s house that night, for security reasons, and Snorri then issued a statement that the whole thing “proved” his point that no freedom of speech existed regarding the discussion of trans issues in Iceland.
Totally unrelated, RÚV premiered a new documentary series called Hate. Which is about “the rise of hate speech in Iceland and the backlash that has occurred in the struggles of various minority groups in recent years.”
✨Saturday saw a protest against “genocide” take place all over Iceland; in Reykjavík, Ísafjörður, Egilsstaðir, Akureyri, Stykkishólmur, Húsavík and Hólmavík. About 185 different organizations were behind the protest. Former MP and foreign minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, spoke at the Reykjavík protest, and suggested that Iceland withdrew from the EFTA free trade agreement with Israel. Subsequently, current foreign minister, Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, said that the Icelandic government would discuss that issue exactly this  Monday.
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The Reykjavík Grapevine is an alternative monthly magazine published in Iceland since 2003. We bringing you the news and views on Icelandic culture and society, sprinkled with music coverage, travel content, restaurant reviews and more. More on https://www.grapevine.is
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