2007 Elections - Parliament
The 12 May 2007 elections took place amid a heated debate on whether the country should prioritize economic growth or the environment, crystallized by a proposal to build new dams and aluminum smelters. Prime Minister Geir Haarde of the Independence Party (IP) insisted that the country should give priority to economic growth by supporting the project to build dams and aluminum smelters, fuelled by Iceland's geothermal and hydroelectric power resources.
In the Parliament (Althing) 63 members are elected through an open-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms. The Prime Minister is appointed by the president with the approval of the parliament.
The IP had dominated Icelandic politics since the country gained independence from Denmark in 1944. Since 1995, it has led a coalition government with the Progressive Party (PP). The PP, led by Minister of Industry and Commerce Jón Sigurdsson, pledged to continue corporate tax cuts in order to maintain a favorable environment for Icelandic business.
The main opposition parties, the Social Democratic Alliance led by Ms. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, and the Left-Green Alliance of Mr. Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, promised to stop the smelters project until appropriate studies on their environmental impact were carried out. A new party, the Icelandic Movement, was founded in March 2007 by Mr. Ómar Ragnarsson, a former TV reporter and outspoken environmentalist, to fight against further heavy industry projects.
Approximately 83 per cent of the 200,000 registered voters turned out at the polls. The final results gave 25 seats to the IP. However, the PP took only seven (down from 12 seats in the 2003 elections), giving a majority of just one seat to the outgoing coalition. The Social Democratic Alliance won 18, losing two; while the Left-Green Alliance gained an extra four seats, winning nine in total. The Liberal Party kept its four seats, while the Icelandic Movement did not win any seats. In all, 20 women were elected.
Although the opposition parties won an overall majority of the popular vote, the Independence-Progressive coalition government of Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde nonetheless survived by the narrowest of margins, hanging on to a one-seat majority in the Althing. Haarde's Independence Party improved its standing with respect to the 2003 parliamentary election, but the Progressives had their worst general election result ever and slipped to fourth place. Warm, witty, and pragmatic, Prime Minister Haarde was at ease in domestic and international settings.
Iceland's main opposition party, the social democratic Alliance also lost ground in the election, but the Left-Green Movement polled strongly, becoming the country's third largest party. Finally, support for the Liberal Party remained stable, while the environmentalist-oriented Iceland's Movement failed to secure parliamentary representation.
Following the close election outcome, the Independence and Progressive parties chose to discontinue their coalition agreement, and the Independence Party subsequently reached an agreement with the Alliance to form a coalition government headed by Prime Minister Haarde.
On 17 May, Prime Minister Haarde and the PP leader Mr. Sigurdsson, announced that they would discontinue their coalition following the PP's poor election results. Later that same day Mr. Haarde and Mrs. Gísladóttir announced that the IP and the Social Democratic Alliance had begun coalition bargaining. The bargaining resulted in a new cabinet, officially sworn in on 24 May. On 31 May, the newly-elected Parliament held a special summer session, which is convened only when elections are held in spring, and elected Mr. Sturla Böðvarsson (IP) as its new Speaker.
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