Support for the Social Democrat/Leftist-Green coalition has increased,
according to a new Gallup poll, since the last time the poll was taken,
just before the elections. 61% of respondants support the government now, compared to around 51% in late April.
More women than men – 66% to 56% respectively – support the coalition, and despite the increase in support for the partnership, support for the individual parties hasn’t changed much. Support for the Social Dems has increased from 28.4% to 29.8% during the time frame, while support for the Leftist-Greens has gone from 21.7% to 22.1%. Among the other parties, support for the Independence Party – the conservatives who were in power previously and unseated in the heat of protests that caught world attention – has actually grown slightly, from 23.7% to 25.1%. The Civic Movement, which got 7.2% before the elections, measures at 8.2% now, while support for the Progressives remains all but unchanged – a difference from 14.5% to 14.8%.
An increase of support for all political parties could be a sign of increasing popular confidence in the new political arrangement, although a growing support for the very party considered by many to be responsible for Iceland’s current economic woes – as well as a fairly unremarkable numbers for the ruling coalition – may indicate in fact the opposite.