Turnout: 80.13%
About this election
The snap Althing election of 30 November 2024 produced a decisive swing to the centre-left and the most dramatic reshaping of parliament in years. The Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin), revitalised under Kristrún Frostadóttir, surged to first place with 20.75% and 15 seats — a gain of nine. The Independence Party fell to a historic low of 19.36% and 14 seats. The liberal, pro-European Viðreisn jumped to 15.82% and 11 seats, and the populist People's Party to 13.78% and 10. Most striking of all, two long-established parties — the Left-Green Movement and the Pirate Party — were wiped out of parliament entirely, each falling below the 5% threshold. Turnout was 80.13%.
The 63 seats were again elected by open-list proportional representation across six constituencies, with 54 constituency seats allocated by D'Hondt and 9 nationwide levelling seats reserved for parties clearing 5% nationally. That threshold proved decisive in 2024: the Left-Green Movement (2.34%) and the Pirates (3.02%) fell just short and lost all representation, concentrating the seats among the six parties that cleared the bar.
The election marked a reordering of the party system. The Social Democrats and Viðreisn rose as the poles of a new centre-left and liberal-centre, the People's Party and Centre Party captured the populist vote, and the once-dominant Independence Party and the near-eliminated Left-Greens and Pirates were the night's losers. For the first time in the republic's history the Independence Party did not lead a governing bloc after the count.
The election came after Katrín Jakobsdóttir's long cross-spectrum coalition finally fractured. She had stepped down as prime minister in April 2024 to run (unsuccessfully) for president; Bjarni Benediktsson returned as premier, but the coalition collapsed in October 2024 and an early election was called. The campaign was fought over the cost of living, high interest rates and inflation, immigration and asylum policy, energy, and — increasingly — Iceland's relationship with the European Union.
The result was a comprehensive rejection of the outgoing parties and a mandate for change. Kristrún Frostadóttir's disciplined repositioning of the Social Democrats toward economic competence and everyday concerns paid off spectacularly, ending years in the wilderness for a party that had won just 5.7% in 2016.
Kristrún Frostadóttir moved quickly to form a three-party centre-left and liberal coalition of the Social Democratic Alliance, Viðreisn and the People's Party, taking office in December 2024. The new government's programme included a commitment to hold a referendum, by 2027, on whether to resume Iceland's frozen EU accession negotiations — provisionally set for 2026.
Turnout was 80.13%, once again very high by international standards and consistent with Iceland's tradition of strong participation, even in a winter snap election.
The 2021 election had returned Katrín Jakobsdóttir's coalition with an enlarged majority, but the government did not last the term. The 2024 landslide swept it away and installed Iceland's first Social Democrat-led government in over a decade, with a new and consequential agenda on Europe.
The 2024 map was the most varied of the four elections, with three different parties topping the poll across the six constituencies. The revived Social Democratic Alliance led in both Reykjavík seats and in the Northeast; the Independence Party held on only in the Southwest and the Northwest; and, most strikingly, the People's Party won the South outright — its first constituency victory anywhere — narrowly ahead of the Independence Party. Viðreisn ran strongly across the capital region and the Southwest, reflecting its liberal, pro-European appeal to urban and suburban voters, while the Centre Party and Progressives retained rural pockets in the north.
Taken together, the results amounted to the deepest realignment of Icelandic politics since the post-crash upheavals. The Independence Party's fall to under 20% — long unthinkable for the republic's dominant party — coincided with the elimination of the Left-Greens and Pirates and the rise of a new centre-left and liberal bloc. The People's Party's surge to 13.8% showed the continuing pull of welfare-populism, while the return of the European question, embodied by Viðreisn's gains, set the agenda for the coalition that followed and its promised 2026 referendum on resuming EU accession talks.
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 Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin), led by Kristrún Frostadóttir, won with 20.8% and 15 seats, its best result in years. She formed a three-party centre-left and liberal coalition with Viðreisn and the People's Party.
The Left-Green Movement (2.3%) and the Pirate Party (3.0%) both fell below the 5% threshold and were wiped out of parliament entirely — the first time each had failed to win a seat since their foundation.
The new coalition's programme commits Iceland to a referendum, provisionally in 2026, on whether to resume the EU accession negotiations that were frozen in 2013 — reopening one of the country's most divisive debates.
Compiled and reviewed by Bartłomiej Paruzel, Election Data Analyst, from official results. See our data methodology.