Crisis sinks conservatives:
Interim Govt wins Iceland vote
ICELAND: Iceland’s interim leftist government won a resounding
victory in this weekend’s general election as voters punished the
conservatives they blame for the country’s economic meltdown seven
months ago.
The conservative Independence Party, in power for 18 years until it
resigned in January amid massive protests over the financial crisis that
brought Iceland to the brink of bankruptcy, posted its worst-ever
election score.
“We lost this time but we will win again later,” party leader Bjarni
Benediktsson said, conceding defeat having garnered just 23.6 percent of
votes, far below the conservatives’ previous all-time low of 27 percent
in 1987.
Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir of the pro-EU Social Democratic
Party will now have to try to reach an agreement with its eurosceptic
coalition partner, the Left Green Movement, on European Union
membership. The Social Democrats were credited with 30.3 percent of
votes and the Left Greens with 21.7 percent, according to official
estimates with 90 percent of ballots counted.
Those numbers would give the coalition an absolute majority of 52
percent, a first for a left-wing government. The Independence Party was
in power in the early 1990s when the financial markets were deregulated,
and has been held accountable for the current crisis which has seen
thousands of people lose their jobs and their savings.
Benediktsson admitted he got the voters’ message.
“It has been clear that we have lost trust and we are just beginning
to gain that back,” he said.
Iceland was one of the most prosperous countries in the world until
late last year, when the global financial crisis led to the collapse of
its oversized financial sector and had a devastating impact.
The state had to take control of the country’s three major banks in
October, as the local currency, the Icelandic krona, lost 44 percent of
its value. Reykjavik, Sunday, AFP |