Iceland’s election: the Pirates failed to live up to expectations, but this was still a landmark result

• Main Author: Leruth, Benjamin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: London School of Economics and Political Science 2016
• Subjects: JN Political institutions (Europe); Iceland
• Online Access: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/70146/; http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/70146/1/blogs.lse.ac.uk-Icelands%20election%20The%20Pirates%20failed%20to%20live%20up%20to%20expectations%20but%20this%20was%20still%20a%20landmark%20result.pdf; http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/

Iceland held elections on 29 October which were called after the country’s government was caught up in the Panama Papers scandal earlier this year. Benjamin Leruth assesses the results, noting that the Pirate Party, who had at one stage led the polling, failed to live up to expectations by finishing with the third highest vote share. Nevertheless, the election underlined the change in the Icelandic party system that has occurred since the financial crisis and could potentially reignite the country’s debate over its relationship with the EU.