Prime Minister Jacobsdottir casts his vote
©APA/AFP
In the parliamentary elections in Iceland, despite the loss of Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir’s party, a majority is emerging for the coalition of the previous government. The first partial results for individual Icelandic regions indicated on Sunday night that Jakobsdottir’s left-green movement lost several percentage points while the smaller of its two allies, the peasant-liberal Progress Party, could gain.
The strongest force is likely to be finance minister and former head of government Bjarni Benediktson’s conservative Freedom Party, which is also part of the coalition. Iceland’s parliament Althing – one of the oldest parliaments in the world – has 63 seats. 32 are therefore necessary for a majority. The final result of the election should be clear by Sunday morning itself.
The North Atlantic island of Iceland, with about 360,000 inhabitants, has been ruled for four years by Jacobsdottir. After the last parliamentary election in 2017, the head of the Left-Green formed an unusual coalition at the political center with the Independence Party and the Progress Party. Polls had already indicated that this could be a tight spot for all three parties with a fresh majority.
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