A new poll shows that while support for the Independence Party is on the rise, only half of those responding wanted to even say what party they supported. Meanwhile, a conservative political scientist gets her math wrong.
The poll, a phone survey conducted by the newspaper Fréttablaðið, shows support for the conservatives rose from 35.6% last September to 43.4% today. At the same time, support for the Leftist-Greens plummeted, from 25.6% to only 16.5% today.
Political scientist Stefanía Óskarsdóttir is being quoted in Vísir as saying that the results show that “the current government has almost nothing to offer,” and speculates that only about 25% of the country supports the ruling coalition.
However, it should be noted that Stefanía ran for parliament with the conservatives in 2002. Secondly, support for the Social Democrats is at 25.8%, up from 23.2% in September, which would actually put support for the ruling coalition at just over 40%.
This still means the conservatives have more support than the ruling coalition – just not by the margin Stefanía claims.
The Progressives also seem to be doing well for themselves, having gone from 7.3% to 11.8%, while The Movement saw their support drop from 5.6% to 2.1%.
However, the most significant result from this poll is that only 54% of respondents could even say what party they supported in the first place. Pundits across the spectrum have pointed out the obvious; that the general public has little trust in any political party, regardless of affiliation.
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