Elected to a four-year term, the President has limited powers and is poised in a largely ceremonial office that serves as a diplomat and figurehead. On 1 August 2016, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson became the new president of Iceland. He was re-elected with an overwhelming majority of the vote in the 2020 presidential election.[3]
The prime minister and cabinet exercise most executive functions. The head of government is the prime minister, who, together with the cabinet, takes care of the executive part of government. The cabinet is appointed by the president after general elections to Althing; however, this process is usually conducted by the leaders of the political parties, who decide among themselves after discussions which parties can form the cabinet and how its seats are to be distributed (under the condition that it has majority support in Althing). Only when the party leaders are unable to reach a conclusion by themselves in reasonable time does the president exercise this power and appoint the cabinet themselves. This has never happened since the republic was founded in 1944, but in 1942 the regent of the country (Sveinn Björnsson, who had been installed in that position by the Althing in 1941) appointed a non-parliamentary government. The regent had, for all practical purposes, the position of a president, and Sveinn in fact became the country's first president in 1944. The governments of Iceland have almost always been coalitions with two or more parties involved because no single political party has received a majority of seats in the Althing during Iceland's republican period. The extent of the political powers possessed by the office of the president is disputed by legal scholars in Iceland; several provisions of the constitution appear to give the president some important powers but other provisions and traditions suggest differently.
The president is elected every four years (last 2020), the cabinet is elected every four years (last 2021) and town council elections are held every four years (last 2018).
The modern parliament called "Althing" or "Alþingi", was founded in 1845 as an advisory body to the Danishking. It was widely seen as a re-establishment of the assembly founded in 930 in the Commonwealth period and suspended in 1799. The Althing is composed of 63 members, elected every 4 years unless it is dissolved sooner. Suffrage for presidential and parliamentary elections is 18 years of age and is universal. Members of the Althing are elected on the basis of proportional representation from six constituencies. Until 1991, membership of the Althing was divided between a lower and upper house but this was changed to a fully unicameral system.
After four four-year terms as the world's first elected woman president, the widely popular Vigdís Finnbogadóttir chose not to run for re-election in 1996.[4] More than 86% of voters turned out in the June 29, 1996 presidential elections to give former leftist party chairman Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson a 41% plurality and relatively comfortable 12% victory margin over the closest of three other candidates. Traditionally limited to 6–12 weeks, Iceland's campaign season was marked by several intensely personal attacks on Ólafur Ragnar, a former finance minister who tried to erase memories of his controversial support of inflationary policies and opposition to the U.S. military presence at the NATO base in Keflavík. Ólafur Ragnar successfully used his largely ceremonial office to promote Icelandic trade abroad and family values at home. The last presidential elections took place on June 27, 2020.
The last parliamentary elections took place on September 25, 2021. A three-party coalition was formed following the 2017 parliamentary elections by the Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), the Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) and the Left-Green Movement (Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð). These political parties were again the three largest in Iceland after the latest elections and subsequently continued the coalition for another term.[5] This was the first time since 2009 in which existing coalition is renewed in Iceland.[6] A total of 203,898 votes were cast consulting 80.1% of the 254,681 electorates.[7]
Political history
1990s
In losing four seats in April 1995 parliamentary elections, the IP and SDP (so-called Viðey government) mustered a simple majority in the 63-seat Althing. However, Prime Minister and IP leader Davíð Oddsson chose the resurgent Progressive Party (PP) as a more conservative partner to form a stronger and more stable majority with 40 seats. Splintered by factionalism over the economy and Iceland's role in the European Union (EU), the SDP also suffered from being the only party to support Iceland's EU membership application.
2000s - 2010s
The beginning of the millennium saw a merger of all the left parties to form the Social Democratic Alliance. Some members chose to join another new left party instead, the Left-Green Movement. After the PP's loss in the 2007 elections its longstanding alliance with the IP ended despite still being able to form a majority. Instead, the IP's leader Geir Haarde chose a stronger but somewhat unstable coalition with the Social Democrats (the Þingvellir government).
Geir's administration fell apart in January 2009 and he called for an early election before standing down as party leader. The Social Democrats subsequently formed an interim government with the LGM. In the resulting election, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir's administration prevailed, the first time Icelanders voted for a majority left-wing government.
After the 2008 financial crisis, there has been an increasing fractionalization of the Icelandic party system. The increase in the number of parties has made it harder for coalition governments to form.[8] What's more, since the initial resignation of the government in January 2009 after the banking collapse, revelations of subsequent political scandals have resulted in the government collapsing in 2016, following the Panama Papers, and again in 2017, following revelations of impropriety within the ranks of the political class; both instances culminated in anti-government protests being staged.[9] Organized protests held to highlight and challenge political corruption since 2008 have therefore come to stress the necessity for the new Icelandic constitution that was co-drafted by the 2009 leftist government and select members of the public to be enshrined into law.[10]
The judiciary consists of the Supreme Court (Hæstiréttur) and district courts. Justices are appointed for life by the minister of justice. The Constitution protects the judiciary from infringement by the other two branches.
Baldur Thorhallsson (ed.). 2018. Small States and Shelter Theory: Iceland's External Affairs. Routledge.
Baldur Thorhallsson (ed.). 2021. Iceland's Shelter-Seeking Behavior: From Settlement to Republic. Cornell University Library
Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson. 2007. Íslenska stjórnkerfið. Háskólaútgáfan.
Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson. 2021. Elítur og valdakerfi á Íslandi. Háskólaútgáfan.
Hulda Thórisdóttir, Ólafur Th. Harðarson, Eva H. Önnudóttir, and Agnar Freyr Helgason. 2021. Electoral Politics in Crisis After the Great Recession: Change, Fluctuations and Stability in Iceland. Routledge.
Related Research Articles
The president of Iceland is the head of state of Iceland. The incumbent is Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson, who is now in his second term as president, elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020.
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is an Icelandic politician who was the fifth president of Iceland from 1996 to 2016. He was previously a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the People's Alliance and served as Minister of Finance from 1988 to 1991.
The Progressive Party is an agrarian political party in Iceland.
Presidential elections were held in Iceland on Saturday, 26 June 2004.
Presidential elections were held in Iceland on 29 June 1996. The result was a victory for Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who received 41.4% of the vote.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 13 June 1971. Although the Independence Party remained the largest party in the Lower House of the Althing, winning 15 of the 40 seats, Independence Party leader Jóhann Hafstein resigned as Prime Minister the day after the elections as his party and its coalition partners had failed to win a majority of seats. Ólafur Jóhannesson of the Progressive Party succeeded him as Prime Minister, announcing the formation of a new coalition government on the same day. The new government's programme included expanding Icelandic fishing borders from 19 to 80 kilometers and gradually closing down Naval Air Station Keflavik but remaining committed to NATO membership.
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic politician, who served as prime minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013.
Katrín Jakobsdóttir is an Icelandic politician who served as the prime minister of Iceland from 2017 to 2024 and was a member of the Althing for the Reykjavík North constituency from 2007 to 2024.
Reykjavík North is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established in 2003 when the existing Reykjavík constituency was split into two. The constituency currently elects nine of the 63 members of the Althing using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2021 parliamentary election it had 45,361 registered electors.
Northwest is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Northwestern in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional representation for elections to the Althing. It was renamed Northwest in 2003 when the Western and Westfjords constituencies were merged into the Northwestern constituency following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland. Northwest consists of the regions of Northwestern, Western and Westfjords. The constituency currently elects seven of the 63 members of the Althing using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2021 parliamentary election it had 21,541 registered electors.
Southwest is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Reykjanes in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional representation for elections to the Althing. It was renamed Southwest in 2003 when the Reykjanes area of constituency was merged into the Southern constituency following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland. Southwest is conterminous with the Capital region but excludes Reykjavík Municipality which has its own constituencies. The constituency currently elects 11 of the 63 members of the Althing using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2021 parliamentary election it had 73,699 registered electors.
Presidential elections were held in Iceland on 30 June 2012. The result was a victory for the incumbent Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who defeated his nearest rival Thóra Arnórsdóttir by nearly 20% of the vote, and went on to serve a record fifth term as president of Iceland.
The Pirate Party is a political party in Iceland. The party's platform is based on pirate politics and direct democracy. The party was founded on 24 November 2012 and ran for the first time in the 2013 parliamentary election.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 29 October 2016. They were due to be held on or before 27 April 2017, but following the 2016 Icelandic anti-government protests, the ruling coalition announced that early elections would be held "in autumn".
Presidential elections were held in Iceland on 25 June 2016. President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, elected in 1996, stepped down after serving five consecutive terms. The history professor Guðni Th. Jóhannesson was elected after receiving a plurality of 39.1% of the vote. He took office on 1 August, as the first new president of Iceland in twenty years.
The 2016 Icelandic anti-government protests were a series of protests against the Icelandic government following the release of the Panama Papers.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 28 October 2017. On 15 September 2017, the three-party coalition government collapsed after the departure of Bright Future over a scandal involving Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's father writing a letter recommending a convicted child sex offender have his "honour restored". Bjarni subsequently called for a snap election, which was officially scheduled for 28 October 2017 following the dissolution of the Althing.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 25 September 2021 to elect the members of the Althing. Following the elections, the three parties in the ruling coalition government – the Independence Party, Progressive Party and Left-Green Movement – agreed to continue in office, with Katrín Jakobsdóttir of the Left-Green Movement remaining Prime Minister despite her party being the smallest of the three. It was the first time an incumbent government had retained power in an election since the 2008 financial crisis.
The First cabinet of Katrín Jakobsdóttir was formed on 30 November 2017, following the 2017 parliamentary election. The cabinet was led by Katrín Jakobsdóttir of the Left-Green Movement, who served and still currently serves as Prime Minister of Iceland.
Parliamentary elections are due to be held in Iceland by Saturday 27 September 2025 to elect the 63 members of the Althing.
References
↑ Del Giudice, Marguerite (March 2008). "Power Struggle". Iceland's Heated Debate - National Geographic Magazine. National Geographic. p.85. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2019-07-21.
↑ Hardarson, Ólafur Th; Kristinsson, Gunnar Helgi (2018-12-01). "Iceland: Political development and data for 2017". European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook. 57 (1): 135–141. doi:10.1111/2047-8852.12222. ISSN2047-8852. S2CID158256950.
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