The Social Democratic Alliance ( is, Samfylkingin - jafnaðarflokkur Íslands), officially The Alliance – Iceland's Social Democratic Party, is a social democratic, and

pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...

political party in Iceland. The Social Democratic Alliance was founded in 2000 after a merger of four

centre-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...

political parties (the National Awakening, the People's Alliance, the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

and the

Women's List The Women's List or Women's Alliance ( is, Samtök um kvennalista), also called Kvennalistinn and abbreviated KL, was a feminist political party in Iceland that took part in national politics from 1983 to 1999. The party held three seats in the ...

) following a joint run by all parties in the

1999 Icelandic parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 8 May 1999.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p962 The Independence Party remained the largest party in the Althing, winning 26 of the 63 seats.Nohlen ...

. The vision of the party was to unite the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

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 Snap parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 25 April 2009, following strong pressure from the public as a result of the Icelandic financial crisis. The Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Green Movement, which formed the outgoing ...

called in the aftermath of the Icelandic financial crisis, the Social Democratic Alliance under the leadership of

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (; born 4 October 1942) is an Icelandic politician, who served as prime minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. She became active in the trade union movement, serving as an officer. Elected as an MP from 1978 to 2013, ...

emerged as the largest party and formed a coalition government with 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 ...

, 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. 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 Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 29 October 2016. They were due to be held on or before 27 April 2017, but following the 2016 Icelandic anti-government protests, the ruling coalition announced that early elections would be held "i ...

, where it polled 5.7%. In the

2017 Icelandic parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Iceland on 28 October 2017. On 15 September 2017, the three-party coalition government collapsed after the departure of Bright Future over a scandal involving Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's father wr ...

the party won 7 seats with 12.1% of the vote. In 2014 it became the largest party in the

Reykjavík City Council The City Council is the governing body of the City of Reykjavík, composed of representatives elected by the inhabitants of the city. The council Municipality is responsible for enforcing the issues which that the State has delegated to local aut ...

, and party member Dagur B. Eggertsson became mayor. As of 2018 it is the second largest party in the City Council after the Independence Party but remains in a majority coalition with Dagur as mayor.

History

The Social Democratic Alliance was born in the run-up to the

as a political alliance of the four

political parties that had existed in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

up till then, namely the National Awakening, the People's Alliance, the

and the

. 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

into one political party capable of countering the

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

Independence Party. However, the initial attempt failed as a group of

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assemb ...

representatives rejected the new party's platform, which was inspired by that of UK Prime Minister

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

's centrist

New Labour New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...

, and broke away before the merger to found the

, a party based on more traditional

democratic socialist Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within ...

values as well as

Euroscepticism Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

and

green politics Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It b ...

. The Icelandic Movement – Living Country merged into the party in March 2009. In February 2013, the official name of the party was changed to The Alliance – Social Democratic Party of Iceland ( is, Samfylkingin – Jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands). 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 Árni Páll Árnason (born 23 May 1966) is a member of thCollegeof the EFTA Surveillance Authority, responsible for Free movement of goods, Competition, Public undertakings and Monopolies, Energy, Environment, Transport, Public procurement. H ...

in June 2016, but he resigned after the results the

. The youth wing of the Social Democratic Alliance is the Social Democratic Youth.

Electoral results

Leadership

Parliamentary party

References

https://www.althingi.is/english/members-of-parliament/political-parties/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johanna-Sigurdardottir#ref1048547 https://www.visir.is/g/20202034266d/heida-bjorg-hilmis-dottir-endur-kjorin-vara-for-madur-sam-fylkingarinnar (in Icelandic) https://www.visir.is/g/20202034262d

External links

Official website
(in Icelandic) {{Parties of Iceland * https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2013/04/08/samfylkingin-the-social-democratic-alliance-interviewed/ * https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johanna-Sigurdardottir#ref1048547 * https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2017/10/28/iceland_2017_elections_government_parties_lose_majo/ Social democratic parties in Europe Pro-European political parties in Iceland Centre-left parties in Europe]ategory:Centre-left parties in Europe