Gov’t Negotiations Still Ongoing, Awaiting Vote Count Committee Decision

Government coalition talks are still ongoing between the Leftist-Greens, the Independence Party and the Progressive Party, some five weeks since general elections were held. However, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir tells RÚV that there is no uncertainty about what the next government will be.

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Katrín is, along with Minister for the Environment Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson and Minister of Tourism and Innovation Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir, in Glasgow right now for the COP 26 conference. Speaking with reporters, Katrín said that these elections have proved unusual, in the sense that the government has held onto its majority.

“Because this government held its majority, of course, there is a long-term strategy in place,” she said. “So this is a different situation than if we were in fact completely uncertain about what will happen.”

In 2017, there was indeed a lot of uncertainty about Iceland’s next government, as general elections at that time were emergency elections held in the wake of the collapse of the government. Following these elections, coalition talks took place between numerous parties before the current one was eventually established.

Katrín also believes it would be best for any announcement about the new government’s joint platform to wait until the parliamentary committee investigating the ballot count scandal in the Northwest District comes to a decision on next steps. These may include letting the first count for that district stand, abiding the subsequent recount, calling new elections for that district, or calling for new elections for the entire country—the latter two of which are highly unlikely.

“This is naturally something that everyone has to accept needs to be concluded,” Katrín said. “It is not possible to reconvene Parliament to discuss the budget or anything else until this is resolved.”