Polls Change Drastically Over Past Few Days

Parliamentary party support changed drastically in the wake of the Panama Papers story, a new Gallup poll shows.

RÚV reports that a Gallup poll conducted from April 4 to April 6 – in the wake of the breaking Panama Papers story that reached Icelanders last Sunday – support for opposition parties saw a significant upswing, while support for the ruling coalition took a statistically insignificant dip.

According to the results, the Pirate Party still has the largest level of support – as they have for over a year now – with 32% saying they would vote for the party if elections were held today, down by about 4% from a last month’s Gallup poll. Support for the ruling coalition of the Independence Party and the Progressive Party is currently at 22% and 11%, respectively, which is only slightly less than their standing last month.

However, significant changes in levels of support were observed amongst opposition parties. The Left-Greens went from 11% to 17% between polls, ranking higher than they have since the summer of 2011. At the same time, support for Bright Future went from about 2% to 5.6%. Meanwhile, support for the Social Democrats decreased a bit, going from 10% to 8%.

The results are similar to another recent poll, conducted by Fréttablaðið/Stöð 2/Vísir, although the Social Democrats and the Pirates rose in support in that particular poll.

For more on this continuing story, follow our Panama Papers tag on Grapevine.is/news.