Iceland forms left-right coalition after snap election

OSLO, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iceland on Thursday formed a left-right coalition with three parties after a snap parliamentary election last month, local media reported.

Katrin Jakobsdottir, leader of the the Left-Green Movement, became Iceland's second woman prime minister in history even as her party came second in the election, according to on-line magazine Iceland Review.

The coalition of the conservative Independence Party, the Left-Green Movement and the center-right Progessive Party, which together have 35 of 63 seats in parliament, officially took power on Thursday, the report said.

Five women and six men are in the new state council, making it the second most gender-equal cabinet in Icelandic history.

Bjarni Benediktsson, chairman of the Independence Party, took the post of minister of finance and economic affairs, while Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, leader of the Progessive Party, became minister of transport and local government.

Jakobsdottir, 41, became deputy chairperson of the Left-Green Movement in 2003 and was Iceland's minister of education, science and culture from 2009 to 2013.

She is Iceland's second female head of government, after Johanna Sigurdardottir was prime minister between 2009 and 2012.

Icelanders on Oct. 28 cast ballots in the country's second parliamentary election in just a year after a "breach of trust" within the center-right coalition forced the government to collapse and prompted the snap vote. Enditem