Comedian and former mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr announced on Friday that he will not be running for President of Iceland the local news site visir.is reports. The decision has been met with considerable disappointment by many of his fans and supporters. Previously Jón had toyed with the idea of running for president on several occasions. Some commentators have predicted Jón would be favoured to win the election, if he were to run.
Read more: Jón Gnarr likely to win presidential election in 2016
Jón had promised to make the announcement on Friday night in a special edition of the popular evening variety show Ísland í dag (Iceland Today) on the local TV station Stöð 2. Jón Gnarr, who is currently the editor of domestic programming at 365, which operates Stöð 2, took over the program which was re-named “Ísland Today” for the occasion. Jón said that he was definitely not going to run for president this time around, despite receiving “constant phone calls” asking him to run. However, he did not rule out the possibility of running at some future point.
“I’m touched and honoured by people wanting me to run. No. I will not run for president at the present, but I might want to do that at some point in the future.” Jón then explained that he was much more interested in acting than returning to politics.
“Sometimes people ask me whether I don’t miss being a mayor. And I always answer I don’t miss it one bit. But people rarely ask me whether I miss acting.” Jón added that he was an actor, and that he did indeed miss acting. He was therefore looking forward to get a chance to act again and produce new Icelandic programming.
To date Jón was the one potential candidate for president who had been seen as by far most likely to win.
Comedian and former mayor of Reykjavík Jón Gnarr announced on Friday that he will not be running for President of Iceland the local news site visir.is reports. The decision has been met with considerable disappointment by many of his fans and supporters. Previously Jón had toyed with the idea of running for president on several occasions. Some commentators have predicted Jón would be favoured to win the election, if he were to run.
Read more: Jón Gnarr likely to win presidential election in 2016
Jón had promised to make the announcement on Friday night in a special edition of the popular evening variety show Ísland í dag (Iceland Today) on the local TV station Stöð 2. Jón Gnarr, who is currently the editor of domestic programming at 365, which operates Stöð 2, took over the program which was re-named “Ísland Today” for the occasion. Jón said that he was definitely not going to run for president this time around, despite receiving “constant phone calls” asking him to run. However, he did not rule out the possibility of running at some future point.
“I’m touched and honoured by people wanting me to run. No. I will not run for president at the present, but I might want to do that at some point in the future.” Jón then explained that he was much more interested in acting than returning to politics.
“Sometimes people ask me whether I don’t miss being a mayor. And I always answer I don’t miss it one bit. But people rarely ask me whether I miss acting.” Jón added that he was an actor, and that he did indeed miss acting. He was therefore looking forward to get a chance to act again and produce new Icelandic programming.
To date Jón was the one potential candidate for president who had been seen as by far most likely to win.
