Prime Minister and leader of the Independence Party (Sjálfstaedisflokkurinn) Geir H. Haarde and leader of the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir will resume governmental discussions today after a break yesterday.
“We still haven’t closed this case,” Haarde told reporters after leaving a meeting with Gísladóttir yesterday. The leaders met with the vice-chairmen of both parties, Thorgerdur Katrín Gunnarsdóttir and Össur Skarphédinsson, for three hours, Morgunbladid reports.
“There are certain issues we have to get straightened out,” Gísladóttir said and added discussions were moving along quickly and successfully.
Haarde and Gísladóttir would not reveal whether they had assigned ministries yet. “We’ll discuss everything at the same time and not distribute anything beforehand,” Haarde said.
RÚV reported yesterday bloggers had begun finding names for the new coalition government; every previous left-right coalition government in Iceland has been given a nickname.
Suggestions included “Vidhaldid,” which could both mean “mistress” and “maintenance,” “Bleikjan,” which refers to something that has been bleached, and “Sáttarstjórnin,” which means the government of compromise or reconciliation.
The last left-right coalition government in Iceland, from 1991 to 1995, was known as “Videyjarstjórnin” after the island Videy off Reykjavík’s coast where discussions between the party leaders had taken place.
