Social Democratic Alliance

The Social Democratic Alliance (Icelandic: Samfylkingin jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands), officially The Alliance – Iceland's Social Democratic Party, is a social-democratic,[4][5][6] feminist[2] and pro-European[3] political party in Iceland.

This article is about the Icelandic political party. For other uses, see Social Democratic Alliance (disambiguation).
Social Democratic Alliance

Samfylkingin
ChairpersonLogi Már Einarsson
Vice-chairpersonHeiða Björg Hilmisdóttir
Chairperson of the boardInga Björk Margrétar Bjarnadóttir
Secretary of the boardÞórarinn Snorri Sigurgeirsson
Chairperson of the parliamentary groupOddný Harðardóttir
Founded5 May 2000
Merger ofNational Awakening
People's Alliance
Social Democratic Party
Women's List
HeadquartersHallveigarstígur 1 101, Reykjavík
Youth wingSocial Democratic Youth
IdeologySocial democracy[1]
Political positionCentre-left[2][3]
European affiliationParty of European Socialists (associate)
Nordic affiliationSAMAK
The Social Democratic Group
Colours     Red
Seats in Parliament
7 / 63
Election symbol
S
Website
samfylkingin.is

The Social Democratic Alliance was founded in 2000 at the convergence 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 was 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 became the country's first majority left-wing government. 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%.[7] The party then regained support in the 2017 Icelandic parliamentary election under the leadership of chairperson Logi Már Einarsson, again becoming the third largest party and largest opposition party.

In 2014 it became the largest party in the Reykjavík City Council[8], and party member Dagur B. Eggertsson became mayor[9]. As of 2018 it is the second largest party in the City Council after the Independence Party[10] but remains in a majority coalition with Dagur as mayor[11].

History

The Social Democratic Alliance was born in the run-up to the 1999 Icelandic parliamentary election as a political alliance of the four left-wing political parties that had existed in Iceland up till then, namely the National Awakening, the People's Alliance, the Social Democratic Party and the Women's List.[12]

The parties then formally merged in May 2000 under the name The Alliance (Samfylkingin). The merger was a deliberate attempt to unify the entire Icelandic centre-left into one political party capable of countering the centre-right Independence Party. However, the initial attempt failed as a group of Althing representatives rejected the new party's platform which was inspired by that of Tony Blair's New Labour and broke away before the merger to found the Left-Green Movement, a party based on more traditional democratic socialist values as well as Euroscepticism and green politics. The Icelandic Movement – Living Country merged into the party in March 2009.[13]

In February 2013, the official name of the party was changed to The Alliance – Social Democratic Party of Iceland (Icelandic: Samfylkingin – Jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands).[14]

The chair of the party is Logi Már Einarsson, who was elected as vice-chairman in June 2016. Oddný Guðbjörg Harðardóttir was elected as chair of the party to succeed Árni Páll Árnason in June 2016, but he resigned after the results the 2016 Icelandic parliamentary election. The youth wing of the Social Democratic Alliance is the Social Democratic Youth.

Electoral results
Election Votes % Seats +/– Position Government
1999 44,378 26.8
17 / 63
 17 2nd Opposition
2003 56,700 31.0
20 / 63
 3 2nd Opposition
2007 48,743 26.8
18 / 63
 2 2nd Coalition
2009 55,758 29.8
20 / 63
 2 1st Coalition
2013 24,292 12.9
9 / 63
 11 3rd Opposition
2016 10,893 5.7
3 / 63
 6 7th Opposition
2017 23,652 12.1
7 / 63
 4 4th Opposition

Leadership
Nº Chairman Took office Left office
1 Margrét Frímannsdóttir
(1954)		 1999 2000
2 Össur Skarphéðinsson
(born 1953)		 2000 2005
3 Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir
(born 1954)		 2005 2009
4 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
(born 1942)		 2009 2013
5 Árni Páll Árnason
(born 1966)		 2013 2016
6 Oddný Guðbjörg Harðardóttir
(born 1957)		 2016 2016
7 Logi Már Einarsson
(born 1964)		 2016 Present

Parliamentary party
MemberSinceFurther informationConstituency
Logi Már Einarsson 2016 Party leader Northeast
Albertína Friðbjörg Elíasdóttir 2017 Northeast
Oddný G. Harðardóttir 2009 Chair of the parliamentary party[15] South
Guðjón S. Brjánsson 2016 First Assistant Speaker of the Parliament[15] Northwest
Ágúst Ólafur Ágústsson 2017 Previously a Member of Parliament from 2003–2009 Reykjavik South
Helga Vala Helgadóttir 2017 Reykjavik North
Guðmundur Andri Thorsson 2017 Vice-chair of the parliamentary party[15] Southwest

References
  1. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017). "Iceland". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  2. The Reykjavík Grapevine's Election Guide 2013 (scanned version) (Html version
  3. Vucheva, Elitsa (28 January 2009). "Iceland's centre-left to form new government". EUobserver. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  4. Hans Slomp (30 September 2011). Europe, A Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. p. 680. ISBN 978-0-313-39182-8. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  5. Claire Annesley (11 January 2013). Political and Economic Dictionary of Western Europe. Routledge. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-135-35547-0. Retrieved 13 July 2013.
  6. Åsa Bengtsson; Kasper Hansen; Ólafur Þ Harõarson; Hanne Marthe Narud; Henrik Oscarsson (15 November 2013). The Nordic Voter: Myths of Exceptionalism. ECPR Press. p. 209. ISBN 978-1-907301-50-6.
  7. "Social Democrats nearly wiped out in Iceland's election; Nordic Labour Journal". nordiclabourjournal.org. 7 November 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
  8. https://www.visir.is/g/2014140609957/lokatolur-i-reykjavik--meirihlutinn-fallinn
  9. https://reykjavik.is/borgarfulltruar/dagur-b-eggertsson
  10. https://www.mbl.is/frettir/kosningar/svf_results/
  11. https://reykjavik.is/frettir/nyr-meirihluti-i-borginni-kynntur-vid-breidholtslaug
  12. Julia Kaute (2 December 2010). Warming up for the EU: Iceland and European Integration: An Analysis of the Factors Contributing to the Changing Perception of Iceland’s Political Elites Toward Membership in the European Union. GRIN Verlag. p. 45. ISBN 978-3-640-76745-8. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  13. "Major political party conferences underway in Iceland | IceNews - Daily News". Icenews.is. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  14. Ísland. "Nafni Samfylkingarinnar breytt | RÚV". Ruv.is. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  15. Alþingi. "Þingflokkur Samfylkingarinnar". Retrieved 9 January 2018.
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