Could this be Iceland’s next Prime Minister?
Katrín Jakobsdóttir. Photo: Iceland Monitor/Eggert Jóhannesson
After talks aimed at forming a new centre-right coalition to rule Iceland fell through yesterday, it is widely expected that Katrín Jakobsdóttir will be given the next crack of the whip at putting together a majority government.
Jakobsdóttir is leader of the Left-Green Movement, who came second in the general elections of 29 November with 15.9% of the vote . The Left-Green Movement was formed in 1999 and runs on a platform of democratic socialism, feminism and pacifism.
Bjarni Benediktsson, leader of the centre-right Independence Party, which won the elections with 29% of the vote, was inititally given a mandate by the President of Iceland to form a government, but has so far been unable to do so.
Bjarni Benediktsson. Photo: Iceland Monitor/Árni Sæberg
Jakobsdóttir has been invited to the President’s residence at 1pm today, where it is widely expected the President will transfer the mandate to her. She has said that if she gets the mandate, she will be holding talks with the leaders of all political parties.
Her expressed preference, however, is to form a complicated five-party left-centre coalition, excluding the two current government parties , the Independence Party and the Progressive Party.
Iceland's only woman PM so far, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (PM 2009-13). Photo: Iceland Monitor/Kristinn Ingvarsson
This coalition would be made up of the Left-Greens, the Pirate Party, Regeneration, Bright Future and the Social Democratic Alliance, and would command a five-man parliamentary majority of 34 (out of 63 MPs).
Should this plan succeed, it would be the first time in Icelandic modern history that the country has been run by a five-party coalition, and Jakobsdóttir would become only the second woman to be PM of Iceland .
