One of the new parties running for parliament, the Public Movement, is gaining support from voters and would currently receive four seats in parliament, according to the latest Capacent Gallup opinion poll, undertaken for Morgunbladid daily and national broadcaster RÚV.
From the protests outside Iceland’s Althingi parliament in October 2008. The political activity surrounding the series of protests gave birth to the Public Movement. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.
According to Morgunbladid, a new party hasn’t achieved that goal since 1999 when the Liberal Party first had representatives elected to parliament. Currently, however, it doesn’t look as if the Liberal Party will earn any seats in parliament.
“It isn’t easy to break up the mold that forms the party system,” said Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, professor in political science at the University of Iceland. He finds the Public Movement’s achievement very interesting.
The poll, which was undertaken April 15 to 19, concluded that the Social Democrats remain Iceland’s largest political party, earning 20 seats in parliament. The other government party, the Left-Greens, follow with 17 seats.
The Independence Party, which was Iceland’s largest party after the 2007 elections, has dropped to the third place with 15 seats in parliament, while the Progressive Party ranks fourth with seven representatives elected to parliament, given that the results of the Gallup poll would be the outcome of the elections next Saturday.
The poll also concluded that the current Social Democrat-Left-Green coalition is losing support. The coalition currently receives an approval rating of 54.6 percent compared to 64 percent in mid-March.
Capacent Gallup called 2,000 voters at random and approximately 60 percent of those contacted responded to the questions.
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