Iceland’s social democrats won on Sunday, December 1, over the Independence Party of Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson in the early legislative elections, called after the breakup in October of the left-right alliance in power, the channel reported public RUV. Facing persistent inflation and high interest rates, purchasing power, housing and health care were top concerns among 268,000 voters, according to polls.
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At the end of the count, the Social Democratic Alliance, led by Kristrun Frostadottir, won 20.8% of the votes against 19.4% for the Prime Minister’s conservative party, in power as part of a coalition. Coming in third place is the Liberal Reform Party with 15.8%, according to RUV, the public television ofIceland.
According to these figures, the Social Democratic Alliance won 15 seats out of the 63 seats in Parliament and saw its score more than double compared to the 2021 election, where it only came close to 10%.
“ I am extremely proud of all the work we have accomplished. Clearly, we’re seeing that people want to see change in the political landscape », Commented Kristrun Frostadottir to AFP when the results began to emerge on Saturday evening.
Lowest election result ever for Prime Minister’s party
The party of Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson, with 19.4% of the vote against 24.4% won in 2021, marks the worst electoral result ever recorded by its party. The Prime Minister announced in mid-October the resignation of the government made up of his party, the Left-Green Movement and the Progress Party (center-right), following divisions in the coalition on multiple subjects, foreign policy to asylum seekers and energy policy.
The coalition, formed by the Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement and the Progress Party, could not resist its disagreements on immigration and asylum seekers.
The Left-Green Movement won only 2.3% of the vote, below the 5% threshold needed to obtain a seat in Parliament. The Progress Party also lost votes compared to 2021, going from 17.3% to only 7.8% of the vote.
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