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Social Democratic Alliance

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This article is about the Icelandic political party. For other uses, see Social Democratic Alliance (disambiguation).
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
HeadquartersHallveigarstigur 1, 101 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
15 / 63
Election symbol
Website
samfylkingin.is

The Social Democratic Alliance (Icelandic: Samfylkingin - jafnaðarflokkur Íslands, lit. 'The Alliance – Iceland's Equality Party')[a] 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 seven seats with 12.1% of the vote. However, the party lost one of their seats and received 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]

History

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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.[10]

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 UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's centrist 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.[11]

In February 2013, the official name of the party was changed to The Alliance – Social Democratic Party of Iceland (Icelandic: Samfylkingin – Jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands).[12]

The chair of the party is Kristrún Frostadóttir, who was elected in 2022. Logi Már Einarsson was the chairperson from 2016-2022. Oddný G. Harðardóttir was elected as chair of the party to succeed Árni Páll Árnason in June 2016, but she resigned after the results the 2016 Icelandic parliamentary election. The youth wing of the Social Democratic Alliance is the Social Democratic Youth.

Electoral results

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Election Leader Votes % Seats +/– Position Government
1999 Margrét Frímannsdóttir 44,378 26.8
17 / 63
 Steady 17 Steady 2nd Opposition
2003 Össur Skarphéðinsson 56,700 31.0
20 / 63
 Increase 3 Steady 2nd Opposition
2007 Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir 48,743 26.8
18 / 63
 Decrease 2 Steady 2nd Coalition
2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir 55,758 29.8
20 / 63
 Increase 2 Increase 1st Coalition
2013 Árni Páll Árnason 24,292 12.9
9 / 63
 Decrease 11 Decrease 3rd Opposition
2016 Oddný G. Harðardóttir 10,893 5.7
3 / 63
 Decrease 6 Decrease 7th Opposition
2017 Logi Már Einarsson 23,652 12.1
7 / 63
 Increase 4 Increase 4th Opposition
2021 19,825 9.9
6 / 63
 Decrease 1 Steady 4th Opposition
2024 Kristrún Frostadóttir 44,091 20.8
15 / 63
 Increase 9 Increase 1st Coalition

Leadership

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Nº Chairman Tenure Elections

Contested

Assumed Office Left Office
1 Margrét Frímannsdóttir
(born 1954) 		1999 2000 1999
2 Össur Skarphéðinsson
(born 1953) 		2000 2005 2003
3 Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir
(born 1954) 		2005 2009 2007
4 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir
(born 1942) 		2009 26 February 2013 2009
5 Árni Páll Árnason
(born 1966) 		26 February 2013 3 June 2016 2013
6 Oddný Guðbjörg Harðardóttir
(born 1957) 		3 June 2016 31 October 2016 2016
7 Logi Már Einarsson
(born 1964) 		31 October 2016 28 October 2022 2017
2021
8 Kristrún Frostadóttir
(born 1988) 		28 October 2022 Present 2024

References

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  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.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ "Major political party conferences underway in Iceland | IceNews - Daily News". Icenews.is. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  12. ^ Ísland (3 February 2013). "Nafni Samfylkingarinnar breytt | RÚV". Ruv.is. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  1. ^ Jafnaðarflokkur can also mean "Social Democratic Party", a similar translation is used by the Faroese Social Democratic Party.
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