The politics of Iceland take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the president is the head of state, while the prime minister of Iceland serves as the head of government in a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the parliament, the Althingi. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Independence Party is a conservative political party in Iceland. It is current the second largest party in the Alþingi, with 14 seats. The chairman of the party is Bjarni Benediktsson and the vice chairman of the party is Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir.
The Progressive Party is an agrarian political party in Iceland.
The Left-Green Movement, also known by its short-form name Vinstri græn (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland.
A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government.
Iceland elects on a national level a mostly ceremonial head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a four-year term by the people. The parliament has 63 members, elected for a four-year term by proportional representation using the D'Hondt method with a closed list. Iceland has a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party typically has a chance of gaining power alone which typically results in a hung parliament, so parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.
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 December 2017 to April 2024 and was a member of the Althing for the Reykjavík North constituency from 2007 to 2024.
Bjarni Benediktsson, known colloquially as Bjarni Ben, is an Icelandic politician who served as the prime minister of Iceland from January to November 2017 and again from April to December 2024. He has been the leader of the Icelandic Independence Party since 2009, and served as the minister of finance and economic affairs from 2013 to 2017, a post he later retained under Katrín Jakobsdóttir and held until his resignation in October 2023. After serving briefly as the minister for foreign affairs from 2023 to 2024, Bjarni became prime minister again on 9 April 2024.
Svandís Svavarsdóttir is an Icelandic politician who has been member of the Althing since 2009. In October 2024, she was elected party leader of the Left-Green Movement. She served as Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources in the government of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir. In the First cabinet of Katrín Jakobsdóttir she served as Minister of Health. She was also the leader of the Left-Green Movement's parliamentary group. She served as the Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture in the Second cabinet of Katrín Jakobsdóttir before Bjarni Benediktsson became Prime Minister, and she became Minister of Infrastructure.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 27 April 2013. Fifteen parties contested the elections, compared to just seven in the previous elections. The result was a victory for the two centre-right opposition parties, the Independence Party and Progressive Party, which subsequently formed a coalition government. The parties were eurosceptic and their win brought to a halt partially completed negotiations with the European Union regarding Icelandic membership.
Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson is an Icelandic politician, who was the prime minister of Iceland from April 2016 to January 2017. He has been the chairman of the Progressive Party since 2016 and Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs between April and December 2024, having previously served as Minister of Infrastructure.
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".
Early 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.
Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 13 September 2021. All 169 seats in the Norwegian legislature, the Storting, were up for election.
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 as Prime Minister of Iceland.
In the run up to the 2021 Icelandic parliamentary election, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Iceland during the term of the Althing. This article lists the results of such polls. The date range for these opinion polls is from the previous election, held on 28 October 2017, to the present day.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 30 November 2024 to elect the 63 members of the Althing. The centre-left Social Democratic Alliance, led by Kristrún Frostadóttir, outperformed the ruling Independence Party to win the most seats, at 15. The election saw the worst performance by the Independence Party, Progressive Party, the Left-Green Movement, and the Pirate Party in each of the parties' histories, while Viðreisn, the People's Party, and the Centre Party saw their best performance in each of the parties' histories. This follows a trend of Icelanders voting against every post–2008 recession government except during the 2021 election.
The Second cabinet of Bjarni Benediktsson was formed on 9 April 2024, following the resignation of Katrín Jakobsdóttir to run in the presidential election. The cabinet was led by Bjarni Benediktsson of the Independence Party, who previously served as Prime Minister of Iceland in 2017.
