Icelanders are set to elect a new parliament amid disagreements over immigration, energy policy, and economic issues, leading to the collapse of the current coalition government and calling for an early election. This marks the country's sixth general election since the 2008 financial crisis, which has led to political instability. Opinion polls suggest further political upheaval with declining support for the ruling parties.
REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Iceland ers are electing a new parliament Saturday after disagreements over immigration, energy policy and the economy forced Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson to pull the plug on his coalition government and call an early election.
Iceland, a nation of about 400,000 people, is proud of its democratic traditions, describing itself as arguably the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy. The island’s parliament, the Althingi, was founded in 930 by the Norsemen who settled the country. A windswept island near the Arctic Circle, Iceland normally holds elections during the warmer months of the year. But on Oct. 13 Benediktsson decided his coalition couldn’t last any longer, and he asked President Halla Tómasdóttir to dissolve the Althingi.“The weakness of this society is that we have no very strong party and we have no very strong leader of any party,” said Vilhjálmur Bjarnason a former member of parliament.
“This is one of the consequences of the economic crash,” said Eva H. Önnudóttir, a professor of political science at the University of Iceland. “It’s just the changed landscape. Parties, especially the old parties, have maybe kind of been hoping that we would go back to how things were before, but that’s not going to happen.”
Iceland is also struggling to accommodate a rising number of asylum-seekers, creating tensions within the small, traditionally homogenous country. The number of immigrants seeking protection in Iceland jumped to more than 4,000 in each of the past three years, compared with a previous average of less than 1,000.
ICELAND ELECTION POLITICAL INSTABILITY FINANCIAL CRISIS IMMIGRATION ENERGY POLICY
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