Icelandic PM dissolves government and calls for election on Nov. 30th.

Icelandic Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson recently announced the end of the Icelandic governing coalition and called for parliamentary elections to be held on November 30th.

Written by Daniel Mercado

Icelandic Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson recently announced the end of the Icelandic governing coalition and called for parliamentary elections to be held on November 30th. [1]

The former governing coalition was comprised of the right-wing Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement, and the center-right (and confusingly named) Progressive Party. [2]

The Independence Party are box standard European Liberals - socially centrist, pro-privatization and Euroskeptics. [3][4]

The Progressive Party is a long-standing conservative rural party that focuses largely on farmers and is often in favor of privatization in many fields, despite being pro-nationalization in others. They also tend to be Euroskeptics. The Left-Green Movement is Iceland’s socially and economically progressive party, with many of their policy issues being focused on women’s and reproductive rights, greater environmental protections, and higher corporate taxes. Despite *also* being Euroskeptics, their skepticism doesn't come from a place of xenophobia, contrasting their right-wing contemporaries. [5]