From Iceland — Opposition Floundering, Except For Pirates

Opposition Floundering, Except For Pirates

Published March 16, 2016

Andie Sophia Fontaine
Photo by
Anna Domnick

The ruling coalition has seen a small boost of support while opposition parties lag – with the exception of the Pirate Party.

According to the results of a new monthly poll from Market and Media Research (MMR), the Pirate Party is once again at the top, as they have been for a full year of MMR polls. They also have more support than both parties in the ruling coalition combined.

The Pirates are currently polling at 37%, down by 1.6% since the previous poll, which was taken on February 10. At the same time, the Independence Party has gone from 21.6% to 23.4%, and the Progressives have gone from 10.8% to 12.2%, giving the ruling coalition a combined support of 35.6%. As such, the Pirates – despite being an opposition party – are once again polling with a higher level of support than both parties in the ruling coalition.

Not every other opposition party fared as well. The Social Democrats went from 9.5% to 7.8% between polls, while the Left-Greens went from 10.2% to 7.8% as well. Bright Future rose slightly, from 3.7% to 4.2%, but this may not be enough to win them a seat in parliament.

Every party in the opposition, with the exception of the Pirates, has been struggling with low levels of support for several months now, with Bright Future in particular in danger of disappearing from parliament altogether.

The next parliamentary elections will be held in May 2017.

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