Iceland’s PM dissolves ruling coalition, citing infighting

The Prime Minister of Iceland, Bjarni Benediktsson, has announced the dissolution of the country’s governing coalition at a surprise press conference in the capital Reykjavik.

Benediktsson cited growing disagreements between the three political parties that make up the ruling coalition as his reason for ending it.

“There are disagreements about policy regarding asylum seekers that have been public. The government has disagreed for quite a while on a vision for the future of energy efficiency. Motions from the Minister of Environment and Energy have been stuck within the government for a while,” he told reporters.

He said fresh parliamentary elections are slated to take place on 30 November, if President Halla Tómasdóttir accepts the motion to dissolve parliament.

National broadcaster RUV said elections must take place no later than 45 days after the dissolution of parliament.

Benediktsson is scheduled to meet Tómasdóttir on Monday.

Iceland’s coalition government is made up of Benediktsson’s conservative Independence Party, the centre-right Progressive Party and the leftist Greens.

Surprise announcement

Svandis Svavarsdottir, the infrastructure minister and chairman of the Greens, said the decision to dissolve parliament came as a surprise and had not been mooted in talks she had had with Benediktsson on Saturday.

“I assumed that the meeting was convened with integrity and we were discussing the situation and perhaps we could come back and see if there is a chance in specific issues,” she said.

“I thought that was our mutual understanding that the most important issue was the economy. Housing and issues regular people are facing like making ends meet. I thought that was our most pressing issue but now we can see that other issues are more important for the prime minister.”

The ruling coalition, in power since November 2021, has faltered under a raft of problems, particularly after a series of volcanic eruptions in the country forced thousands to evacuate their homes, putting more pressure on an economy already dealing with high inflation and rising interest rates.