Support for the ruling coalition of the Social Democrats and Leftist-Greens took a significant hit in a recent poll, while support for the Independence Party – driven from power after months-long protests just over a year ago – has seen a huge boost in support.
The poll, conducted by the Icelandic daily newspaper Fréttablaðið, shows the Independence Party’s support now hovers at around 40%, a huge boost up from 31.1% from last January’s poll. If elections were held today, this would take them from 16 of parliament’s 63 seats up to 27.
At the same time, support for the two parties of the ruling coalition combined totals just under 44%. However, when asked if they supported the ruling coalition in particular, those polled who said they did totalled 38.9%, while 61.1% said they did not.
The Social Democrats have the support of 23.1% of those polled, which would take them down from 20 seats to 15, but had 28.7% in the previous poll. Support for the Leftist-Greens fell less significantly, from 24.6% to 20.6%, equating 13 seats instead of 14, but is still the first time the party has seen a drop of support since July.
Most interestingly, the Progressive Party – despite their strong and fairly transparent ties to InDefense, the people who organized the petition to veto the previous Icesave law and put it up for referendum – have seen a small drop in support. They now enjoy the support of only 13.3% of those polled, which takes them down from nine seats to eight.
Meanwhile, the Civic Movement has the support of 2.1% of those polled, while The Movement – the party created in the wake of Þráinn Bertelsson leaving the Civic Movement – has the support of 0.6% of those polled. Neither party would have a seat in parliament if elections were held today, although The Movement has three seats at the moment.