Iceland’s Prime Minister Joins Bernie Sanders’ Progressive International

Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Iceland’s left-wing Prime Minister, announced on Facebook her support for a new international progressive movement, Stundin reports.

In the first of a series in The Gaurdian, Yanis Veroufakis echoed Bernie Sanders call for the founding of a ‘Progressive International’. Bernie Sanders was the surprisingly successful challenger to Hillary Clinton’s nomination and one of the most popular politicians in the United States. Yanis Veroufakis was Greece’s finance minister in 2015, who resigned after the Greek government agreed to further EU mandated austerity. He is running for the European Parliament in Germany for the new DiEM25 party.

Katrín is the leader of Iceland’s Left-Green Movement and believes there needs to be more cooperation between leftists parties worldwide to confront, climate change, income inequality, militarism, and the resurgent far-right around the world. The Left-Green Movement is a Democratic Socialist party, but is in a coalition with the conservative Independence Party and the centrist-agrarian and unfortunately named Progressive Party.

Income inequality is a major issue in the coming labour contract negotiations, with housing being of particular concern for Iceland’s working people.