Turnout: 81.20%
About this election
Iceland went back to the polls on 28 October 2017, barely a year after the previous election, when Bjarni Benediktsson's centre-right coalition collapsed after Bright Future walked out over a scandal involving the prime minister's father. The Independence Party again finished first, but with a near-record-low 25.25% and 16 seats. The Left-Green Movement rose to 16.89% and 11 seats, and their leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir emerged as the natural candidate for prime minister. Two new forces made their mark: the populist Centre Party (Miðflokkurinn), founded by former premier Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, and the People's Party (Flokkur fólksins), each winning 7 and 4 seats respectively. Turnout was 81.20%.
As in every Althing election, the 63 seats were filled by open-list proportional representation across six constituencies — 54 constituency seats distributed by D'Hondt, plus 9 nationwide levelling seats for parties above the 5% threshold. The 2017 result again illustrated a quirk of the system: the Social Democrats and Centre Party each won more votes than the Progressive Party but fewer seats, because of how support was distributed across constituencies.
The collapse of trust in the traditional parties had by now produced an unusually crowded parliament of eight parties. The Independence Party anchored the right; the Left-Greens, Social Democrats and Pirates the left; the Progressives the centre; and the Centre Party and People's Party the populist flank. With no natural majority on either side, a government could only be built across the traditional divide.
The trigger was a breach of trust: it emerged that the prime minister's father had written a letter of "restored honour" (uppreist æru) on behalf of a convicted child sex offender, and that the matter had been kept from the coalition partners. Bright Future quit the government, forcing the snap election. The campaign turned on integrity in public life, the health service, and the housing crisis.
The election confirmed both the erosion of the Independence Party's historic dominance and the arrival of the Centre Party as a significant populist force. The fragmentation left the Left-Green Movement, only the second-largest party, in the pivotal position — a striking outcome for a party of the eco-socialist left.
After an initial attempt at a four-party left coalition failed, Katrín Jakobsdóttir formed an unusual and much-debated "grand coalition" spanning the political spectrum: her Left-Green Movement together with the centre-right Independence Party and the centrist Progressives. Sworn in on 30 November 2017, it paired ideological opposites in the name of stability after years of turmoil.
Turnout rose to 81.20%, above the 2016 figure, as the integrity scandal and the prospect of yet another change of government drew voters back to the polls.
The 2016 election had produced a fragile Independence-led coalition that lasted less than a year. The 2017 vote both punished that instability and, paradoxically, produced one of the most durable Icelandic governments of the modern era, as Katrín Jakobsdóttir's cross-spectrum cabinet went on to serve a full term.
As in 2016, the Independence Party finished first in every constituency, but its margins were thinner and the regional contrasts sharper. It polled above 30% in the wealthy Southwest but only around 20% in the Northeast, where the Left-Greens (nearly 20%) and the new Centre Party (almost 19%) ran it close. The Centre Party and Progressives together dominated the rural Northwest, Northeast and South — the Progressives took over 18% in both the Northwest and South — underlining how the populist and agrarian vote was concentrated outside the capital. The Left-Green Movement, Social Democrats and Pirates drew their strength from the two Reykjavík seats and the Southwest.
The most consequential shift was the splintering of the populist and centrist vote. Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson's new Centre Party carved 10.9% out of the space once occupied by his old Progressive Party, while Viðreisn and Bright Future — the two liberal parties that had entered government in January 2017 — were punished, Bright Future losing all its seats. The net effect was to push the Left-Green Movement, rather than any centrist force, into the role of kingmaker, and to make a coalition across the traditional left-right divide all but unavoidable.
Figures from Statistics Iceland (Hagstofa Íslands) and the National Electoral Commission (landskjörstjórn). Constituency map: largest party by constituency (Reykjavík North and South shown combined).
The Independence Party finished first with 25.3% and 16 seats, but its leader could not form a government. Left-Green leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir instead became prime minister at the head of a cross-spectrum coalition with the Independence Party and the Progressives.
Bjarni Benediktsson's 2016 coalition collapsed after Bright Future quit over a scandal involving a letter of "restored honour" written by the prime minister's father for a convicted sex offender, forcing an election barely a year after the last one.
The populist Centre Party (Miðflokkurinn), founded by former prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, won 7 seats, and the People's Party (Flokkur fólksins) entered parliament with 4, giving the Althing eight parties.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.