Iceland’s President Caused A Political Meltdown After Sharing His Views About Pineapple On Pizza
Where do you stand?
Last week Guðni Jóhannesson, a former Icelandic history professor, visited a high school in the town of Akureyri, north Iceland. He shared some stories about iconic figures in Icelandic history and took questions from students on a whole range of topics, including how he felt about pineapple on pizza.
Jóhannesson said that he was “firmly opposed to pineapple pizza” and added that he would pass a law to ban pineapple on pizza if he had the power. On first glance that’s a pretty uncontroversial statement. Pineapple on pizza is objectively awful, and every sane individual would ban it if they could.
The problem is that Jóhannesson isn’t just a former Icelandic history professor. He also happens to be the actual President of Iceland. So when he says he would try and ban something it carries a fair bit more weight than your usual anti-pineapple rant.
Soon after Jóhannesson made his comments #PineappleOnPizza started trending on Twitter internationally, as good and righteous people defended the proposed ban:
I'm with Iceland #pineappleonPizza
— Andrew (@onenorthernman) February 21, 2017
And bad and wrong people justified their horrible decision to put pineapple on pizza:
If I may enter this debate: I think #pineappleonpizza is perfectly fine, esp. when paired with ham or bacon.
— David Veselenak (@DavidVeselenak) February 21, 2017
In response to the international uproar Jóhannesson was forced to issue a statement on Facebook clarifying the matter.
“I like pineapples, just not on pizza,” he said. “I do not have the power to make laws which forbid people to put pineapples on their pizza. I am glad that I do not hold such power. Presidents should not have unlimited power. I would not want to hold this position if I could pass laws forbidding that which I don´t like. I would not want to live in such a country. For pizzas, I recommend seafood.”
While it’s true that the President of Iceland does not have the power to unilaterally pass laws, such as a pineapple on pizza ban, Jóhannesson does have the authority under the constitution to submit bills to the Icelandic parliament, though no president in history has actually done this.
Jóhannesson’s approval rating before the pineapple controversy was at 97 percent. My guess is that after confirming he holds the right view about pizza toppings that rating will hit 100 percent later this week.