Frostadóttir is meeting with Gunnarsdóttir and Sæland at 3 pm

Kristrún Frostadóttir, chair of the Social Democratic Alliance, plans to meet with the chairmen of the Liberal Reform Party and the People's Party at 3 pm today to discuss government formation.

Frostadóttir is meeting with Gunnarsdóttir and Sæland at 3 pm

Frostadóttir said this after receiving a mandate to form a government from the President of Iceland this morning.

"Urgent to get started immediately"

"There are clear results from these elections that people want to see changes in government. I have been tasked by the President of Iceland to form a government in the country. It is thus, in my opinion, and the opinion of most, that three parties achieved the greatest success in these elections, namely the Social Democratic Alliance, the Liberal Reform Party, and the People's Party," she said, adding that it was urgent to get started immediately on government formation and that it was important to achieve a certain degree of stability in the national government.

“Reducing interest rates and inflation”

“I think the key thing for the next government must be to keep the economy stable and in a good place. Number one, two, and three must create ongoing conditions for reducing interest rates and inflation. Then we also need to take care of the infrastructure and ensure that there are prerequisites for continued value creation that strengthen our welfare systems,” she added.

“We should be able to reach agreement”

“I am optimistic and go into this with a positive outlook,” she said when asked if the three parties can reach an agreement on what matters.

“There is a significant amount of common ground for the issues in this context. Of course, there are different emphases, which is why we are in different parties. But I think we should be able to reach an agreement on many big and important issues that must be tackled in the coming days. I would not be embarking on this journey unless I believed I could succeed.”

We are solution-oriented

When asked how long the talks could take, Frostadóttir replied: "I think all Icelandic citizens can see that there is no time to dwell on this for too long, either there is a substantive basis or there is not. I am positive and solution-oriented and we all will be. I know these women from previous collaborations and I think there is a strong will to make this work. Economic issues have been the main issue in many places, infrastructure issues, certain issues in healthcare, for example, and I intend to go into these talks optimistically."

She said that in the talks, it will be fundamental to start with those issues where the parties have common ground.

When asked if she planned to become prime minister, Frostadóttir said she did not want to discuss it at this point.