List of political parties in Iceland

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This article is a list political parties in Iceland. Iceland has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Political parties

Contemporary

Parties in the parliamentary elections of 27 April 2013

The law automatically grants the right for the parties having participated in the previous election, to continue using the same list letter. The Ministry of Interior announced, that in order for any party to participate in the 2013 election, an application for a specific list letter should be submitted no later than 9 April, while new parties were also required to deliver minimum 300 electorate signatories expressing support for their participation, within each constituency it intended to run. The final approval was conditional, that the party in each constituency also submitted a valid candidate list comprising twice as many candidates compared to the total number of seats in the constituency, at the latest on 12 April. An official list of 15 approved parties (incl. all their specific candidate lists), was subsequently published by the National Election Committee (Icelandic: Landskjörstjórn) on 16 April.[1] In total 72 candidate lists were approved, as 11 parties had opted to run in all six constituencies, while 2 parties (Humanist Party and People's Front of Iceland) opted only to run in two constituencies, and the final 2 parties (Rural Party and Sturla Jónsson) were only present in one constituency.[2] The table below is a summarized list of all parties which the National Electoral Commission has approved for participation in the 2013 elections.

English name[3] Icelandic name[1] List[1] Website[4]
Bright Future Björt framtíð A
Progressive Party Framsóknarflokkur B
Independence Party Sjálfstæðisflokkur D
Right-Green Movement Hægri Grænir G
Humanist Party
(related to International Humanist Party) 		Húmanistaflokkurinn H
Households Party
(New party founded 19 March 2013, as a merger of 8 groups:
Republican Party, Sovereign Union, Sjálfstæðir Sjálfstæðismenn,
Þjóðarflokkurinn, 3 interest groups, and a split from Solidarity)[5][6][7] 		Flokkur Heimilanna I[8]
Rainbow
(New party founded in March 2013)[9][10][11][12] 		Regnboginn J[13]
Sturla Jónsson Sturla Jónsson
(formerly known as Framfaraflokkurinn) 		K[14]
Democracy Watch
(a new party split from Dawn)[15][16] 		Lýðræðisvaktin L
Rural Party
(New party founded 23 February 2013)[17][18] 		Landsbyggðarflokkurinn M[19]
People's Front of Iceland Alþýðufylkingin R
Social Democratic Alliance Samfylkingin — jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands S
Dawn Dögun T
Left-Green Movement Vinstrihreyfingin — grænt framboð V
Pirate Party[20] Pírataflokkurinn Þ

With parliamentary representation in April 2009 - April 2013

Five parties were originally elected at the previous April 2009 election. Since then, the parliamentary representation for one of these, Citizens' Movement, first mostly moved to The Movement and then, in March 2012, to the new party Dawn. In January 2012, the new party Solidarity was also founded by a previous MP from Left-Green Movement. Another new party, Bright Future, was formed in February 2012 with the involvement of 2 current MPs, leaving respectively the Progressive Party and Social Democratic Alliance. One MP originally elected for Citizens' Movement, also left to establish her own party in 2012, namely the Pirate Party. Finally 2 Left-Green Movement MPs, also decided to split and form the new Rainbow Movement in March 2013. The box below show the distribution of seats in the incumbent parliament, as of the last working day of the parliaments term on 28 March 2013.[21]

Name List Ideology Spectrum Leader MPs
Social Democratic Alliance
Samfylkingin		 S Social democracy, Pro-Europeanism, Feminism Centre-left Árni Páll Árnason 19
(30.16%)
Independence Party
Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn		 D Liberal conservatism, Classical liberalism, Euroscepticism Centre-right Bjarni Benediktsson 16
(25.40%)
Left-Green Movement
Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð		 V Democratic socialism, Eco-socialism, Euroscepticism, Feminism Left Katrín Jakobsdóttir 11
(17.46%)
Progressive Party
Framsóknarflokkurinn		 B Liberalism, Nordic agrarianism, Euroscepticism Centre-right Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson 9
(14.29%)
Bright Future
Björt framtíð		 A Social liberalism, Green liberalism, Pro-Europeanism Centre to Centre-left Guðmundur Steingrímsson (left B)
Róbert Marshall (left S)[22][23]		 2
(3.18%)
Dawn
Dögun		 T Democracy, Equality, Justice N/A Margrét Tryggvadóttir
Þór Saari 		2
(3.18%)
Rainbow
Regnboginn		 J N/A N/A Atli Gíslason (left V)
Jón Bjarnason (left V)		 2
(3.18%)
Pirate Party
Pírataflokkurinn		 Þ Pirate politics N/A Birgitta Jónsdóttir (left T) 1
(1.59%)
Solidarity
Samstaða		 C N/A N/A Lilja Mósesdóttir (left V) 1
(1.59%)

Active parties, without participation in the 2013 parliamentary election

English name[3] Icelandic name[4] List[4] Website[4]
Solidarity Samstaða C
Liberal Democrats
(It will most likely not run in the election) 		Lýðfrelsisflokkurinn
Christian Political Movement [24] Kristin stjórnmálasamtök

Parties with uncertain continuation

Defunct

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Announcements: Notice of lists that will participate in the parliamentary election on 27 April 2013" (in Icelandic). Landskjörstjórn (The National Electoral Commission). 16 April 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  2. ↑ "Announcement by the National Electoral Commission about available political parties in the parliamentary elections 27 April 2013" (PDF) (in Icelandic). Landskjörstjórn (The National Electoral Commission). 16 April 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Reykjavík Grapevine's Election Guide 2013 (scanned version) (Html version)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Website publishing candidate lists and election news for the parties participating in the 2013 parliamentary election".
  5. ↑ "Create a party to work with Progressive Party" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  6. ↑ "Households Party founded" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 19 March 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "Eight organizations stand behind the Households Party" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 1 April 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  8. ↑ http://www.stjornartidindi.is/Advert.aspx?ID=f16c4392-cf3a-4e43-9c74-0529094c8cfe
  9. ↑ "Atla Gíslason and Bjarni Harðarson prepare to run the election with a new party" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 10 March 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  10. ↑ Blog of Bjarni Harðarson
  11. ↑ "Thorstein Bergsson leading the Rainbow candidate list in Northeast" (in Icelandic). Smugan. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  12. ↑ "Bjarni Harðarson leads the list in the South constituency" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 26 March 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
  13. ↑ http://www.stjornartidindi.is/Advert.aspx?ID=02fb4336-d59d-4e96-9518-7046ec4ea227
  14. ↑ http://www.stjornartidindi.is/Advert.aspx?ID=15efd6c8-9b1d-4da4-a48d-6298f85021bc
  15. ↑ "Constitutional Council men establish the new party Democracy Watch" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 15 February 2013. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
  16. ↑ "Democracy Watch formally established" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 18 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  17. ↑ "Will establish a Rural Party" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  18. ↑ "Rural Party founded today" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 23 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  19. ↑ http://www.stjornartidindi.is/Advert.aspx?ID=c453ab7b-d558-4cc4-a366-ba405b2625f6
  20. ↑ "Pirates get list letter Þ" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
  21. ↑ "Statistics on the 141 session which was suspended on 28 March to the end of the electoral term 27 April" (in Icelandic). Althingi. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  22. ↑ "Úrsögnin kom félögum á óvart" [Withdrawal came as a surprise] (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 12 October 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  23. ↑ "Róbert Marshall first and Ottarr Proppé second" (in Icelandic). Mbl.is. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  24. ↑ "The Christian's Political Party has been founded" (in Icelandic). Christian Political Movement (blog). 9 March 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
  25. ↑ http://www.mbl.is/frettir/kosning/2012/12/13/jon_gnarr_i_5_saeti_i_reykjavik_nordur/
  26. ↑ "Her name shall be Dawn" (in Icelandic). Rúv.is. 18 March 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2013.