The final election result showed that Iceland’s coalition government won a majority in Saturday’s election. In Althing, there will also be a majority of first-time women.
The government today consists of the Independence Party, the Left Party, and the Progress Party, which are similar to the Conservatives, Social Democrats, and Social Democrats of Norway, respectively.
The three parties had secured 37 of the 63 seats in the Allengate National Assembly when all the votes were counted.
Prime Minister Catherine Jacobsdottir of the Green Left party lost votes for her government partners, and it remains to be seen whether the three parties will continue their cooperation even after the elections and whether Jacobsdottir will continue as prime minister.
“We have to see how the government parties do it together and how we do it,” Jacobsdottir told AFP last night, while preliminary results showed her party lost one of the 11 seats it won in 2017.
The historical majority are women
After all the votes were counted on Sunday morning, it became clear that Althingi would consist of 33 women and 30 men.
This is the first time in Iceland, and in Europe in general, that the National Assembly has more women than men. Figures obtained by AFP from the World Bank show.
Sweden is the country that previously came close to crossing the border for half of the women, and half of the men in the National Assembly – for 47 percent of the women.
Pecs for a ruling party
The biggest winner in the election was the Icelandic center party, the Progress Party, which climbed 6.6 percentage points from the previous election and took five new seats in Althing compared to the previous election.
Jacobsdottir’s left-wing Green Party lost three seats and lost 4.3 percentage points.
The largest party in the government, the Independence Party, remained unchanged at 16 seats, although it also lost the number of voters. They ended up with support 0.8 percentage points lower than in 2017.
Eight parties in Althing
It was expected in advance that nine parties would be able to sit in Althingi, which further divides the political landscape than before. It also makes it difficult to predict which parties might form a coalition. Iceland also has a history with majority government, which makes it even more demanding.
“I know the results make it complicated and it will be complicated to form a new government,” Jacobsdottir said during election night.
Eight parties ended up hijacking seats in the National Assembly after all the votes were counted.
The Center Party, which was founded before the 2017 elections and is a centre-right populist party, is the most backward of all. They ended up with three seats, down four (from 10.9 percent to 5.4 percent). The Prime Minister’s party fell in second place.
The newly founded Socialist Party, the far left, ended at 4.1 percent and did not enter.
“Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer.”
