The soft jazz from the band fades away and to an accompaniment of old age pensioners consuming sandwiches and gossiping, Katrin Jakobsdottir, vice-chairman of Iceland’s Left Green party, takes the microphone at this modest political meeting in downtown Reykjavik.

The 32-year old activist soon silences the inattentive audience with fiery talk of a divided society where the rich are getting richer while education, care for the elderly and the life of the average Icelander are all undermined.