After failing to hammer out an agreement with the parties of the center and left, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the chairwoman of the Left-green alliance, met with the President of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson today to hand over the mandate to form a government. Previously the chairman of the conservative Independence party had similarly tried and failed to form a government. After having met with Katrín, Guðni Th. told media he would not be hand over the mandate to a third party leader, the local news site visir.is reports.
Read more: Talks on center-left coalition collapse over disagreement over taxes on the wealthy
After the general elections, which were held on October 29, Guðni Th. handed the mandate to form a government to Bjarni Benediktsson, the chairman of the conservative Independence party. Bjarni failed to hammer out an agreement with the two centrist parties, the center right Restoration, and Björt framtíð. Disagreement about changes to the system of transferable fishing quotas was the main reason for the breakdown of negotiations. A three-party coalition of the three parties would also have had only a one seat majority in parliament, a potential recipe for a weak majority, many pundits pointed out.
The second option of Bjarni was to convince the second largest party in parliament, the Left-green movement, to join an across the aisle government, favored by many members of the Conservative party and pundits. The Left-green movement ruled out such a government, pointing to irreconcilable differences over taxes and the tarnished reputation of the Conservative party over the Panama papers.
Read more: The punk rocker that could become Iceland’s next Minister of the Interior
On November 15 Bjarni Benediktsson returned the mandate to the president, who then proceeded to hand it over to Katrín Jakobsdóttir of the Left-green alliance. Initially negotiations between the parties of the center and left seemed to go well, but fell apart on Wednesday over disagreement with the centrist Restoration over new taxes on corporations and the wealthy, sources within the Left-green movement have told Iceland Insider.
Katrín floated the idea of replacing Restoration with the center-right Progress party, an idea which the leader of the Pirate party. Birgitta Jónsdóttir told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV was far-fetched. The Pirate party has previously been extremely critical of the Progressive party, whose former leader had to resign following the publication of the Panama papers.
Guðni Th., the President of Iceland, told reporters he was going to hand over a formal mandate to any of the party leaders, instead urging the parties to engage in informal negotiations. I expect that things will have cleared sometime this weekend, or very least at the beginning of next week, and that we can then make decisions about what the next step should be. He added that he fully expects a new government will have been formed when parliament reconvenes.
Sigurður Ingi Jóhannesson, the acting Prime Minister, told RÚV that he expects parliament will be called to reconvene on December 6. Parliament will have to vote on a budget for the upcoming year.
After failing to hammer out an agreement with the parties of the center and left, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the chairwoman of the Left-green alliance, met with the President of Iceland, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson today to hand over the mandate to form a government. Previously the chairman of the conservative Independence party had similarly tried and failed to form a government. After having met with Katrín, Guðni Th. told media he would not be hand over the mandate to a third party leader, the local news site visir.is reports.
Read more: Talks on center-left coalition collapse over disagreement over taxes on the wealthy
After the general elections, which were held on October 29, Guðni Th. handed the mandate to form a government to Bjarni Benediktsson, the chairman of the conservative Independence party. Bjarni failed to hammer out an agreement with the two centrist parties, the center right Restoration, and Björt framtíð. Disagreement about changes to the system of transferable fishing quotas was the main reason for the breakdown of negotiations. A three-party coalition of the three parties would also have had only a one seat majority in parliament, a potential recipe for a weak majority, many pundits pointed out.
The second option of Bjarni was to convince the second largest party in parliament, the Left-green movement, to join an across the aisle government, favored by many members of the Conservative party and pundits. The Left-green movement ruled out such a government, pointing to irreconcilable differences over taxes and the tarnished reputation of the Conservative party over the Panama papers.
Read more: The punk rocker that could become Iceland’s next Minister of the Interior
On November 15 Bjarni Benediktsson returned the mandate to the president, who then proceeded to hand it over to Katrín Jakobsdóttir of the Left-green alliance. Initially negotiations between the parties of the center and left seemed to go well, but fell apart on Wednesday over disagreement with the centrist Restoration over new taxes on corporations and the wealthy, sources within the Left-green movement have told Iceland Insider.
Katrín floated the idea of replacing Restoration with the center-right Progress party, an idea which the leader of the Pirate party. Birgitta Jónsdóttir told the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service RÚV was far-fetched. The Pirate party has previously been extremely critical of the Progressive party, whose former leader had to resign following the publication of the Panama papers.
Guðni Th., the President of Iceland, told reporters he was going to hand over a formal mandate to any of the party leaders, instead urging the parties to engage in informal negotiations. I expect that things will have cleared sometime this weekend, or very least at the beginning of next week, and that we can then make decisions about what the next step should be. He added that he fully expects a new government will have been formed when parliament reconvenes.
Sigurður Ingi Jóhannesson, the acting Prime Minister, told RÚV that he expects parliament will be called to reconvene on December 6. Parliament will have to vote on a budget for the upcoming year.
