Parlamentary elections in Iceland

Abstract

A former territory of the Kingdom of Denmark which became an independent republic in 1944, Iceland is, on various levels, an interesting case-study regarding its recent political and electoral evolution, especially after the financial and economic crisis of 2008. In truth, it was this crisis’ sequels which were the catalysts of the attempted “popular” constitutional reform, which if successful would have allowed to substantially replace or review the 1944 Constitution and the reconfiguration of the party system with the emergence of several new parties, the fusion of old political forces as well as the programmatic modification of some traditional parties. We shall take a lateral approach to some of these aspects, given that the essence of the present work is the holding of elections to the Icelandic Parliament (known in its original term as “Althingi”) which took place on the 25th of September 2021. This was the 30th electoral act to the legislative assembly since 1931 and the results were surprising to most observers.