Rainbow ( is, Regnboginn) is a Eurosceptic and

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

political party in Iceland This article is a list of political parties in Iceland. Iceland has a multi-party system with many political parties, in which often no one party has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties must work with each other to form coalition govern ...

, founded in March 2013 by former MP

Bjarni Harðarson Bjarni Harðarson (born 25 December 1961 in Arnýjarhús, Hveragerði) is a bookseller, novelist, and former MP from the Icelandic Progressive Party. Election and resignation Bjarni was elected to parliament in 2007 as the eighth MP from the Sou ...

, who had been elected for the

Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to: Active parties * Progressive Party, Brazil * Progressive Party (Chile) * Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus * Dominica Progressive Party * Progressive Party (Iceland) * Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...

, and current MPs Jón Bjarnason and Atli Gíslason, both dissidents from the

Left-Green Movement The Left-Green Movement ( is, Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð), officially the Left Movement – Green Candidature and also known by its short-form name ''Vinstri græn'' (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland. The Left-Gree ...

(VG). The party was founded in order to contest the 2013 Icelandic parliamentary election. They successfully applied for the list letter J to contest the 2013 parliamentary election, and submitted an official candidate list on 12 April 2013.

History

In 2012, the year prior to the formation of the new party, Bjarnason and Gíslason left VG to sit as independents. On 16 March 2013,

Thorstein Bergsson Thorsten (Thorstein, Torstein, Torsten) is a Scandinavian given name. The Old Norse name was ''Þórsteinn''. It is a compound of the theonym ''Þór'' (''Thor'') and ''steinn'' "stone", which became ''Thor'' and ''sten'' in Old Danish and Old Swed ...

, a candidate for the

, announced he was leaving the party and joining Rainbow, saying he was disappointed by the party's position on the EU. The party subsequently announced Bergsson would have the number two spot on the party's list in the Northeast constituency.

Ideology

The party seeks to address what they call "the most pending issue in Icelandic society today: the imminent accession to the European Union." It is a Eurosceptic party, with Left-Green MPs Jón Bjarnason and Atli Gíslason having left their previous party over disagreements regarding VG's policy towards

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

. On other issues, they emphasise the need for

equal pay for women Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the ful ...

, increasing the child benefit, expanding preventive healthcare, and breaking up large corporations. The party supports a

mixed economy A mixed economy is variously defined as an economic system blending elements of a market economy with elements of a planned economy, markets with state interventionism, or private enterprise with public enterprise. Common to all mixed economie ...

, dominated by the public sector and complemented by local private sector businesses.

Electoral results

References

External links

Official websiteParty manifesto
{{Defunct political parties in Iceland Political parties established in 2013 Defunct political parties in Iceland Socialist parties in Iceland Eurosceptic parties in Iceland