Social Democratic Alliance

Social Democratic Alliance
Samfylkingin – jafnaðarflokkur Íslands
ChairpersonKristrún Frostadóttir
Vice-chairpersonGuðmundur Árni Stefánsson
Chairperson of the executive boardGuðmundur Ari Sigurjónsson
SecretaryArna Lára Jónsdóttir
Chairperson of the parliamentary groupLogi Már Einarsson
Founded5 May 2000
Merger ofNational Awakening
People's Alliance
Social Democratic Party
Women's List
HeadquartersSóltún 25 105, Reykjavík
Youth wingSocial Democratic Youth
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left[3]
European affiliationParty of European Socialists (associate)
Nordic affiliationSAMAK
The Social Democratic Group
Colours  Red
Seats in Parliament
6 / 63
Election symbol
Website
samfylkingin.is

The Social Democratic Alliance (Icelandic: Samfylkingin - jafnaðarflokkur Íslands, lit.'The Alliance – Iceland's Social Democratic Party') is a social democratic political party in Iceland. The party is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectrum and their leader is Kristrún Frostadóttir.

The Social Democratic Alliance was founded in 2000 after a merger of four centre-left political parties (the National Awakening, the People's Alliance, the Social Democratic Party and the Women's List) following a joint run by all parties in the 1999 Icelandic parliamentary election. The vision of the party was to unite the left-wing of Icelandic politics, which had been fractured since the 1930 split of the Social Democratic Party, and present a united bloc to oppose the ruling Independence Party.

In the snap 2009 Icelandic parliamentary election called in the aftermath of the Icelandic financial crisis, the Social Democratic Alliance under the leadership of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir emerged as the largest party and formed a coalition government with the Left-Green Movement, which was the country's first majority left-wing government. She was the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay head of government.[4]

The party lost substantial support in the 2013 Icelandic parliamentary election, becoming the third largest in Alþingi and nearly losing all its representatives at the 2016 Icelandic parliamentary election, where it polled 5.7%.[5] In the 2017 Icelandic parliamentary election the party won 7 seats with 12.1% of the vote, but lost one of their seats and got 9.9% of the vote in the 2021 Icelandic parliamentary election.

In 2014 it became the largest party in the Reykjavík City Council,[6] and party member Dagur B. Eggertsson became mayor.[7] From 2018 it has been the second largest party in the City Council after the Independence Party[8] but remains in a majority coalition.[9]

  1. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Iceland". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  2. ^ "The Future of a Country – The Future of a Nation". Social Democratic Alliance. 12–13 April 2007. Archived from the original on 10 February 2009. Retrieved 28 November 2008.
  3. ^ The Reykjavík Grapevine's Election Guide 2013 (scanned version) (Html version)
  4. ^ Sigurðardóttir, Jóhanna. "prime minister of Iceland". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 3 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Social Democrats nearly wiped out in Iceland's election; Nordic Labour Journal". nordiclabourjournal.org. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  6. ^ "Lokatölur í Reykjavík: Meirihlutinn fallinn - Vísir". 6 January 2014.
  7. ^ "Dagur B. Eggertsson". 5 June 2013.
  8. ^ "Kosningar 2022 - Úrslit í stærstu sveitarfélögum".
  9. ^ "Nýr meirihluti í borginni kynntur við Breiðholtslaug". 12 June 2018.