Iceland's current government coalition is a minority coalition between the center-left Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) and the leftist, environmentally focused Left-Green Movement (LG). The coalition holds only 27 out of 63 seats in parliament, and depends on the centrist agrarian Progressive Party (PP) for support. The SDA-LG coalition took power after the previous government of the conservative Independence Party (IP) and the SDA collapsed in January 2009, and will remain in office until early elections on April 25, 2009.

Following regular parliamentary elections in 2007, the IP and SDA formed a strong majority with then-IP Chair Geir Haarde as Prime Minister and then-SDA Chair Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir as Foreign Minister. However, when the Icelandic banking sector collapsed in fall 2008, taking the nation's economy with it, opinion polls showed less than 50% of the public had confidence in the government's crisis management. The resulting protests were Iceland's most serious since the riots over NATO membership in 1949. Tensions between the IP and SDA resulted in the breakup of the coalition on January 26, 2009 and the formation of a leftist minority government. At the same time, SDA Chair Gísladóttir left politics to focus on her recovery from treatment for a benign brain tumor. Former Minister of Social Affairs Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became Iceland's first female Prime Minister, and subsequently became SDA Chair in March 2009.

The SDA formed in 2000 from three leftist parties--the Social Democratic Party, the People's Alliance, and the Women's List--which formed an electoral coalition in the 1999 parliamentary campaign to challenge the long-dominant Independence Party. Though this effort failed in 1999, under Gísladóttir's leadership the SDA was eventually able to rebound and form a majority with the IP in 2007. The party has found it difficult to reconcile the widely varying foreign policy views of its members, which range from strong support for NATO membership to pacifism and neutrality. The SDA is the most openly pro-EU of Iceland's political parties.

Finance Minister Sígfusson split from the leftist electoral coalition in 1999 and formed the Left-Green Movement. The Left Greens won a respectable 9% of the vote (5 seats) in 2003, but in the 2007 election they improved significantly, with 14% of the total vote (9 seats). As its name implies, the party is focused on a Nordic socialist model of governance with a strong emphasis on environmental issues. It is formally against EU membership for Iceland but is open to change should the Icelandic public demand it.

Iceland's current political uncertainty follows nearly two decades of relative stability, much of it marked by an Independence-Progressive coalition that was in power from 1995-2007. Longtime IP leader Davíð Oddsson was Prime Minister 1991-2004, making him the longest-serving prime minister in Europe. IP Deputy Chair Geir Haarde succeeded Oddsson as party chair when the latter retired from politics in 2005. At the same time, Haarde took over as Foreign Minister, and on June 15, 2006 he became Prime Minister when then-PP leader and Prime Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson resigned.

The conservative, trans-Atlantic oriented IP elected parliamentarian Bjarni Benediktsson to follow former PM Haarde as Party Chairman in late March 2009, after Haarde announced in January his intent to leave politics while undergoing treatment for esophogeal cancer. Following the economic collapse of 2008, the IP undertook a thorough review of its policy on joining the EU, concluding that the question should be decided by national referendums before and at the conclusion of membership talks with Brussels.

The centrist agrarian Progressive Party has been a party to government for over 30 years in the past four decades. Its support dropped from 23% in the 1995 parliamentary election to 12% in 2007. The party has dealt with internal instability in the past few years, and power struggles have lead to frequent change in the party's leadership. Current Chairman Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson was elected at the party's national congress in January 2009, following the sudden resignation of Guðni Ágústsson in November 2008. Ágústsson himself had replaced Jón Sigurðsson after the party's disastrous showing in the 2007 elections.

Iceland's Liberal Party, devoted to changing the current fisheries management system, clung to a 6% share of the vote in 2007 and hopes to make it over the 5% threshold for representation in the Alþingi in 2009. Other movements that have emerged since the protests of fall 2008 and winter 2009 have fared poorly in opinion polls, and do not stand to win any seats in the April 2009 elections.

Iceland's current President is Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, a former political science professor who led the far-left People's Alliance in 1987-95 and served as Finance Minister in 1988-91. Although Grímsson won office with only a 41% plurality in 1996, he was not challenged for re-election in 2000 and was re-elected again on June 26, 2004. In 2008, Grímsson was again re-elected by default. This follows a well-established tradition of giving deference to sitting presidents. Once in office, a president can generally count on serving as many terms as he or she likes, assuming good behavior. Reflecting the belief that the president is "above politics," presidential candidates run for election as individuals--since 1952, political parties have played no role in nominating or endorsing candidates. President Grímsson has occasionally drawn criticism that he breaches the bounds of presidential etiquette by being too outspoken on sensitive political issues.

Principal Government Officials
President--Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Prime Minister--Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
Foreign Minister and Minister of Industry--Össur Skarphéðinsson
Minister of Finance and Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries--Steingrímur J. Sigfússon
Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs--Ragna Árnadóttir
Minister of Communications--Kristján L. Möller
Minister for the Environment and Nordic Cooperation--Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir
Minister of Business Affairs--Gylfi Magnússon
Minister of Health--Ögmundur Jónasson
Minister of Social Affairs--Ásta Ragnheiður Jóhannesdóttir
Minister of Education, Science and Culture--Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Speaker of Althingi--Guðbjartur Hannesson
Ambassador to the U.S.--Hjálmar W. Hannesson
Ambassador to the UN--Gunnar Pálsson
Ambassador to NATO--Þorsteinn Ingólfsson
Ambassador to the EU--Stefán Haukur Jóhannesson

transliteration key:
Þ is "th"
ð is "d"

Iceland maintains an embassy in the United States at 1156 - 15th Street, NW, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20005 [tel. (202) 265-6653], and a consulate general at 800 Third Ave, 36th floor, New York, NY 10022 [tel. (212) 593-2700]. Iceland also has 25 honorary consulates in major U.S. cities.

Government
Type: Semi-presidential, parliamentary.
Independence: 1918 (became "sovereign state" under Danish Crown); 1944 (establishment of republic).
Constitution: 1874.
Branches: Executive--president (head of state), prime minister (head of government), cabinet (12 ministers). Legislative--63-member unicameral parliament (Althingi). Judicial--Supreme Court, district courts, special courts.
Subdivisions: 26 administrative districts and 79 municipalities.
Major political parties: Independence (IP), Progressive (PP), Social Democratic Alliance (SDA), Left-Green Party (LGP), Liberal Party (LP).
Suffrage: Universal 18 years and above.
National holiday: June 17, anniversary of the establishment of the republic.