The author of the article, Jon Bjarki Magnusson, called participants of the March “Nazis” and “fascists”. According to the Polish embassy in Iceland after the article came out, people had been calling them and greeting them with “Heil Hitler”.
“The situation became sad and required an intervention. It was required of me by Poles living on Iceland,” said the Polish ambassador to Iceland Gerard Pokruszyński. The Polish diplomat sent a letter to “Stundin” and the Icelandic government, reminding them of Poland’s history and Poles’ approach to fascism.
How is it possible, for it to be so easy to use such phrases in democratic Iceland’s public space against ordinary Polish citizens and accuse them of association with that German criminal machine?
“How is it possible, for it to be so easy to use such phrases in democratic Iceland’s public space against ordinary Polish citizens and accuse them of association with that German criminal machine?,” Pokruszyński wrote in the letter.
The letter was published by “Stundin” and the editorial board rejected the ambassador’s accusations and did not remove the controversial article. Magnusson said Pokruszyński’s letter portrayed him as “an enemy of the Polish nation”. Kristinn Hrafnsson, head editor of WikiLeaks, claimed it was “extremely insolent behavior from the Polish ambassador and should be criticized by the Icelandic government.
Magnusson did admit, however, that he had not participated in the march in Warsaw, and had based his article solely on the reports of other media
In the original article by Magnusson, one can read that the march was the “largest assembly of nationalists and radical Rightists in the world recently.” Magnusson also claimed that one could hear hate speech against immigrants and phrases denying the Holocaust. He also wrote that participants were waving banners with Nazi symbols.
Magnusson did admit, however, that he had not participated in the march in Warsaw, and had based his article solely on the reports of other media.
10 percent of people in Iceland are Poles
Out of Iceland’s 334,000 inhabitants up to 30 to 40,000 are Polish. Poles are the largest group of migrants in the country and in some towns, they even comprise the majority of inhabitants.
