National Preservation Party

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Preservation Party (Icelandic: Þjóðvarnarflokkurinn) a political party in Iceland. Founded and supported on March 15, 1953 by the same group that edited the weekly paper Frjáls Þjóð. The party was against Icelandic membership in NATO and demanded a referendum. The party was also against the presence of the United States of America (U.S.) military bases in Iceland. The party supported mixed economy of both private and public participation. The party gained two seats (Gils Guðmundsson and Bergur Sigurbjörnsson were the MPs of the party) in the Icelandic Parliament in the 1953 elections but later lost those seats in 1956. Representatives of the party also gained presence in the student council of the University of Iceland, the Akureyri local government and in the city council of Reykjavík.

In the 1963 the National Preservation Party had candidates on the lists of the People's Alliance. Gils Guðmundsson gained a seat in the pairlament which he held until 1979. The other former member of parliament, Bergur Sigurbjörnsson, did not succeed in winning back his seat, but served twice in the parliament during the electorial period of 1963-1967 in the as a replacer of other MPs.