Iceland's Pirate Party leader fails to form new gov't: reports
Xinhua, December 13, 2016 Adjust font size:
Leader of Iceland's Pirate Party Birgitta Jonsdottir has failed to form a new government as informal coalition talks between the country's five opposition parties fell through, Icelandic media reported on Monday.
After a two-hour meeting between the leaders of the Pirate Party, the Left-Green Movement, the Vidreisn (Revival) party, the Bright Future and the Social Democratic Alliance on Monday noon, it became clear that an agreement on a five-party coalition will not be reached and formal talks will not be launched, online magazine Iceland Review said.
Birgitta explained that the parties had disagreed too strongly on certain issues for a compromise to be achieved, especially in terms of fisheries, according to the report.
She intended to return the mandate to lead government formation talks back to Icelandic President Gudni Johannesson later Monday, the report said.
Birgitta was the third party representative after Independence Party chairman Bjarni Benediktsson and Left-Green Movement leader Katrin Jakobsdottir to receive a mandate. All three have failed to form a majority coalition following the parliamentary election on Oct. 29.
The Independence Party, one of the two current ruling parties, won 21 out of the 63 seats in the new parliament after winning 29.0 percent of the ballots.
However, the centrist Progressive Party, the other ruling party, finished fourth with only eight seats, 11 fewer than what it had gained in the last parliamentary election in 2013.
The Left-Green Movement gained 10 seats with 15.9 percent of votes, while the Pirate Party, which had taken the lead in many pre-election polls over the months, also won 10 seats with 14.5 percent.
The Vidreisn party, the Bright Future and the Social Democratic Alliance also crossed the electoral threshold with seven, four and three seats respectively. Endit