List of political parties in Iceland

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This article is a list political parties in Iceland. Iceland has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition governments.

Political parties

Contemporary

Parties in the parliamentary elections of 27 April 2013

The law automatically grants the right for the parties having participated in the previous election, to continue using the same list letter. The Ministry of Interior announced, that in order for any party to participate in the 2013 election, an application for a specific list letter should be submitted no later than 9 April, while new parties were also required to deliver minimum 300 electorate signatories expressing support for their participation, within each constituency it intended to run. The final approval was conditional, that the party in each constituency also submitted a valid candidate list comprising twice as many candidates compared to the total number of seats in the constituency, at the latest on 12 April. An official list of 15 approved parties (incl. all their specific candidate lists), was subsequently published by the National Election Committee (Icelandic: Landskjörstjórn) on 16 April. In total 72 candidate lists were approved, as 11 parties had opted to run in all six constituencies, while 2 parties (Humanist Party and People's Front of Iceland) opted only to run in two constituencies, and the final 2 parties (Rural Party and Sturla Jónsson) were only present in one constituency. The table below is a summarized list of all parties which the National Electoral Commission has approved for participation in the 2013 elections.

English name	Icelandic name	List	Website
Bright Future	Björt framtíð	A	[1]
Progressive Party	Framsóknarflokkur	B	[2]
Independence Party	Sjálfstæðisflokkur	D	[3]
Right-Green Movement	Hægri Grænir	G	[4]
Humanist Party (related to International Humanist Party)	Húmanistaflokkurinn	H	[5]
Households Party (New party founded 19 March 2013, as a merger of 8 groups: Republican Party, Sovereign Union, Sjálfstæðir Sjálfstæðismenn, Þjóðarflokkurinn, 3 interest groups, and a split from Solidarity)	Flokkur Heimilanna	I	[6]
Rainbow (New party founded in March 2013)	Regnboginn	J	[7]
Sturla Jónsson	Sturla Jónsson (formerly known as Framfaraflokkurinn)	K	[8]
Democracy Watch (a new party split from Dawn)	Lýðræðisvaktin	L	[9]
Rural Party (New party founded 23 February 2013)	Landsbyggðarflokkurinn	M	[10]
People's Front of Iceland	Alþýðufylkingin	R	[11]
Social Democratic Alliance	Samfylkingin — jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands	S	[12]
Dawn	Dögun	T	[13]
Left-Green Movement	Vinstrihreyfingin — grænt framboð	V	[14]
Pirate Party	Pírataflokkurinn	Þ	[15]

With parliamentary representation in April 2009 - April 2013

Five parties were originally elected at the previous April 2009 election. Since then, the parliamentary representation for one of these, Citizens' Movement, first mostly moved to The Movement and then, in March 2012, to the new party Dawn. In January 2012, the new party Solidarity was also founded by a previous MP from Left-Green Movement. Another new party, Bright Future, was formed in February 2012 with the involvement of 2 current MPs, leaving respectively the Progressive Party and Social Democratic Alliance. One MP originally elected for Citizens' Movement, also left to establish her own party in 2012, namely the Pirate Party. Finally 2 Left-Green Movement MPs, also decided to split and form the new Rainbow Movement in March 2013. The box below show the distribution of seats in the incumbent parliament, as of the last working day of the parliaments term on 28 March 2013.

Name		List	Ideology	Spectrum	Leader	MPs
	Social Democratic Alliance Samfylkingin	S	Social democracy, Pro-Europeanism, Feminism	Centre-left	Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir	19 (30.16%)
	Independence Party Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn	D	Liberal conservatism, Classical liberalism, Euroscepticism	Centre-right	Bjarni Benediktsson	16 (25.40%)
	Left-Green Movement Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð	V	Democratic socialism, Eco-socialism, Euroscepticism, Feminism	Left	Steingrímur J. Sigfússon	11 (17.46%)
	Progressive Party Framsóknarflokkurinn	B	Liberalism, Nordic agrarianism, Centrism, Euroscepticism	Centre	Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson	9 (14.29%)
	Bright Future Björt framtíð	A	N/A	N/A	Guðmundur Steingrímsson (left B) Róbert Marshall (left S)	2 (3.18%)
	Dawn Dögun	T	Democracy, Equality, Justice	N/A	Margrét Tryggvadóttir Þór Saari	2 (3.18%)
	Rainbow Regnboginn	J	N/A	N/A	Atli Gíslason (left V) Jón Bjarnason (left V)	2 (3.18%)
	Pirate Party Pírataflokkurinn	Þ	N/A	N/A	Birgitta Jónsdóttir (left T)	1 (1.59%)
	Solidarity Samstaða	C	N/A	N/A	Lilja Mósesdóttir (left V)	1 (1.59%)

Active parties, without participation in the 2013 parliamentary election

English name	Icelandic name	List	Website
Solidarity	Samstaða	C	[16]
Optimism Party (It will most likely not run in the election)	Bjartsýnisflokkurinn	E	[17]
Liberal Democrats (It will most likely not run in the election)	Lýðfrelsisflokkurinn		[18]
Christian Political Movement	Kristin stjórnmálasamtök		[19]

Parties with uncertain continuation

• Best Party (Besti flokkurinn)
  The party has so far only been political active in the Reykjavik City Council. Both the founder and vice-chairperson of the party are now on the MP election list for Bright Future.
• Liberal Party (Frjálslyndi flokkurinn)
  Merged with Citizens' Movement and The Movement to form the new party Dawn, for whom it will list candidates in the 2013 Parliamentary election.
  It is however unclear if the party has completely merged, or perhaps will continue as an independent political wing fraction within the new Dawn party.
• Sovereign Union (Samtök Fullveldissinna) - a.k.a. L-List of Sovereignty Supporters
  Last sign of activity was a protest against the Icesave bill 3 in 2011, and a national congress in Dec. 2012.
  But one of the key-persons (Bjarni Harðarson) left to establish the Rainbow movement in March 2013.

Defunct

• Citizens' Movement (Borgarahreyfingin)
• Citizen's Party (Borgaraflokkurinn)
• Communist Party (Kommúnistaflokkurinn)
• Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (Kommúnistaflokkurinn (m-l))
• Democracy Movement (Lýðræðishreyfingin)
• Home Rule Party (Heimastjórnarflokkurinn)
• Icelandic Movement – Living Land (Íslandshreyfingin – lifandi land)
• National Awakening (Þjóðvaki)
• Nationalist Party (Flokkur Þjóðernissinna)
• National Preservation Party (Þjóðvarnarflokkurinn)
• New Force (Nýtt afl)
• Old Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn eldri)
• People's Alliance (Alþýðubandalagið)
• People's Unity Party – Socialist Party (Sameiningarflokkur alþýðu - Sósíalistaflokkurinn)
• Social Democratic Party (Alþýðuflokkurinn)
• The Movement (Hreyfingin)
• Union of Liberals and Leftists (Samtök frjálslyndra og vinstri manna)
• Women's List (Kvennalistinn)

See also

• Politics of Iceland
• Icelandic parliamentary election, 2013
• List of political parties by country

External links

• Icelandic election statistics