Iceland

Lyðveldið Ísland

Note: After a difficult week of antigovernment protests fueled by anger over the struggling economy, the ruling left-right coalition of Prime Minister Geir Haarde’s senior coalition Independence Party (IP) and The Alliance collapsed on January 26, 2009. Following the resignation of government, President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson requested that The Alliance form a minority caretaker coalition with the opposition Left-Green Alliance. Alliance Social Welfare Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was named prime minister, making her Iceland’s first female prime minister and the modern era’s first openly gay head of government. In legislative elections held on April 25, Sigurðardóttir’s party earned two more seats, increasing its share of the 63 member Althing to 20; its coalition partner, the Left-Green Alliance, increased its share by five for ...