A new Gallup poll, presented on Tuesday, indicates that support for Iceland’s government is declining. Support for the government, which measured almost 80 percent after the general elections in May 2007, is down to 52 percent and has decreased for the seventh month in a row, Morgunbladid reports.
The majority of survey respondents also said they are dissatisfied with how the government and the Central Bank are handling the economic crisis. Support for both government parties does, however, remain steady; 33 percent of participants support the Independence Party and 30 percent would vote for the Social Democrats.
Meanwhile, rumors on serious disagreement within the Independence Party-Social Democrat coalition have been circulating.
Robert Wade, an economist at the London School of Economics, claimed to have heard rumors that the Social Democrats plan to terminate the coalition with the Independence Party in an article in the online edition of Financial Times on Tuesday.
In his article, Wade discusses the economic problems Iceland is facing, arguing that these problems will cause the Independence Party-Social Democrat coalition government to split, only one year after it was formed.
“Opinion polls suggest that the Independence party would be likely to suffer a big loss and the Social Democratic party, its reputation less tarnished by the financial crisis, could get enough support to form a new government with one of the smaller parties,” Wade wrote.
Lúdvík Bergvinsson, party group chairman of the Social Democrats, dismisses Wade’s claims. “There has nothing happened yet which could form a basis for such rumors,” Bergvinsson told Fréttabladid.
Prime Minister and chairman of the Independence Party Geir H. Haarde also dismisses claims on a possible termination of the coalition with the Social Democrats. He told Stöd 2 such rumors were plain nonsense.
