Iceland Prime Minister resigns

Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, Iceland Prime Minister has resigned. He held office after the resignation of Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson (being implicated in a tax avoidance scandal).

The Prime Minister said: «This was in accordance with the constitution, to hand in my resignation and then be asked to stay in office until a new government has been formed». The reason of Johannsson’s resignation became the fact that his party lost votes to the Pirate Party in Saturday’s general election.

The Pirate Party, whose victory was predicted by many analysts, has got fewer seats than originally planned (only 10), gaining 15% of votes. However, it is considerably larger than the party had seats in the previous parliament.

Besides, the Independence party has got 29 % of votes, which was significantly more than opinion polls had predicted. The Independence party took 29 seats in Parliament, with its coalition partner, the Progressive party. Moreover, Bjarni Benediktsson, leader of the Icelandic Independence Party said that he would prefer to create a three-party coalition, but refused to say with whom. The Pirate Party would not like to form alliance with the Independence party, some experts pointed out that during the negotiations could change their opinion, and it would be beneficial to all parties.