The People's Alliance () was an

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

from 1956 to 1968 and a

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

political party from 1968 to 1998.

History

In 1916, 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 Form ...

(''Alþýðuflokkurinn'') was formed in Iceland. In 1930 the party split, leading to the formation of the Communist Party of Iceland (''Kommúnistaflokkur Íslands''), recognised as the Icelandic section of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

. In 1937 the social democrats suffered another split, and the splinter group unified itself with the communists forming the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(''Sósíalistaflokkurinn''). However, the new party did not become a ComIntern member as its forerunner. The first chairman of the People's Alliance was Ragnar Arnalds. On 4 April 1956, the Socialist Party created an electoral alliance with yet another left-wing split of the Social Democratic Party led by Hannibal Valdimarsson, thus forming the People's Alliance with Hannibal as its chairman. In 1963,

National Preservation Party National Preservation Party () was a political party in Iceland. History The party was founded on 15 March 1953 by members of the Progressive Party, Social Democratic Party and Socialist Party.Vincent E McHale (1983) ''Political parties of ...

(''Þjóðvarnarflokkurinn'') contributed people to the joint electoral alliance, resulting in Gils Guðmundsson, a former member of parliament (1953–1956) for ''Þjóðvarnarflokkurinn'' gaining a seat in the parliament, which he held until 1979. In 1968 the People's Alliance officially became a political party. At that time Hannibal left and formed his own

Union of Liberals and Leftists The Union of Liberals and Leftists () was a social-liberal political party in Iceland. History The party was established in 1969 by dissidents from the People's Alliance who had formerly been members of the National Preservation Party.Vincent ...

. The later president of Iceland,

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (; born 14 May 1943) is an Icelandic politician who was the fifth president of Iceland, serving from 1996 to 2016.

, was chairman of the party from 1987 to 1995 after joining it coming from

after he broke away from the Progressive Party. In the mid-1960s, the U.S. States Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 1,000 (1% of the working age population of Iceland).Benjamin, Roger W.; Kautsky, John H..
Communism and Economic Development
', in The

American Political Science Review The ''American Political Science Review'' (''APSR'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of political science. It is an official journal of the American Political Science Association and is published on their behalf ...

, Vol. 62, No. 1. (Mar. 1968), pp. 122. In 1998, it joined forces with the Social Democrat Party, the Women's Alliance (''Samtök um kvennalista'') and the National Awakening (''Þjóðvaki'') in forming the

Social Democratic Alliance The Social Democratic Alliance (, ) is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Iceland, political party in Iceland. The party is positioned on the Centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum and their ...

(''Samfylkingin''), a broad centre-left party. However the People's Alliance continues to exist on papers until its debts are paid. Some members of the People's Alliance did not support the forming of the Alliance, including some MPs of the party, and formed the

Left-Green Movement The Left-Green Movement (, ), also known by its short-form name Vinstri græn (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland. Since the 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election, the party has had no members in the Althing. The party chairper ...

(''Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð''), a socialist-green party, in 1999. The party was not a communist party, but it used to be the Icelandic referent of the World Communist Movement. It was opposed to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and the presence of U.S. military forces in Iceland. It was also opposed to Icelandic membership of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and the EEA agreement in 1993 between the

EFTA The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European Union ...

and the EU, Iceland being a member of EFTA. It participated in five coalition governments from 1956 to 1991, beginning in Hermann Jónasson's last government 1956–1958, then in both of

Ólafur Jóhannesson Ólafur Jóhannesson (1 March 1913 – 20 May 1984) was twice the Prime Minister of Iceland for the Progressive Party (1971–1974 and 1978–1979). He was a member of the Progressive Party, serving as party chairman from 1968 to 1979. C ...

's governments 1in 1971–1974 and in 1978–1979, then in

Gunnar Thoroddsen Gunnar Thoroddsen (pronounced ) (29 December 1910 – 25 September 1983) was the prime minister of Iceland from 1980 to 1983. Gunnar was the youngest man ever elected to the Althing, Iceland's Parliament. He was 23 years old when he was ele ...

's only government 1980–1983 and finally in

Steingrímur Hermannsson Steingrímur Hermannsson (pronounced ; 22 June 1928 – 1 February 2010) was an Icelandic politician who served as prime minister of Iceland from 1983 to 1987, and again from 1988 to 1991. He was the chairman for the Progressive Party from 197 ...

's latter government in 1988–1991. The youth league of the People's Alliance was known as ÆFAB.

Election results

Chairpersons

Sources

*Hannes H. Gissurarson
''Communism in Iceland, 1918–1998''
Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland, Reykjavik 2021.

References

{{Defunct political parties in Iceland Defunct political parties in Iceland Social democratic parties Socialist parties in Iceland 1956 establishments in Iceland Political parties disestablished in 1998 Political parties established in 1956 Social Democratic Alliance 1998 disestablishments in Iceland