REYKJAVIK: Iceland’s president launched talks on Monday to determine who could form the next government after an inconclusive general election in which a record eight political parties won seats.
Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson called the snap election a month ago after a junior member of his center-right coalition quit over a legal scandal involving Benediktsson’s father.
Growing public distrust of the elite in recent years has spawned several anti-establishment parties, splintering the political landscape and making it increasingly difficult to form a stable government.
None of the record eight parties that won seats in parliament in Saturday’s vote came close to obtaining a majority, and both the rightwing and the leftwing want a chance to form the next government.
President Gudni Johannesson began individual talks with all the party leaders on Monday.
Benediktsson, whose conservative Independence Party came out on top but with just 16 of 63 seats, was first out to meet with the president.
Exiting the talks, Benediktsson, whose party has been the main political force in Iceland for decades, said he had told Johannesson he was ready to build a new government.
“I told the president that the Independence Party is ready to try to form a government and is willing to assume responsibility,” he told public broadcaster RUV.
However, he signalled that he may need more time as “other groups might need more room before attempting to try it.”
Benediktsson is being challenged by the Left Green Movement and its potential allies, the Social Democratic Alliance and the anti-establishment Pirate Party.
Under the Icelandic system, the president, who holds a largely ceremonial role, usually tasks the leader of the biggest party with trying to put a government together.
But Benediktsson and his party have been tainted by scandals in recent years, and the party lost almost a quarter of its seats in parliament in the vote.
As a result, the president could decide to ask the leader of the Left Greens, Katrin Jakobsdottir, to form a government.
The Left Green Movement came in second with 11 seats, the Social Democratic Alliance obtained seven seats, and the Pirates six seats. They would need a fourth partner to hold a majority.
Regardless of who receives the mandate, it could take days, weeks or even months before Iceland has a new government in place as thorny coalition negotiations await.
A coalition of at least three, four or five parties would be needed to obtain a majority in parliament.
Jakobsdottir, who vowed during the election campaign to spread Iceland’s economic prosperity to the health care and education sectors, said meanwhile she should be given the opportunity.
“We have eight parties in parliament and right now there doesn’t seem to be any obvious majority. All parties are open for discussion,” she said.
Iceland’s president in talks with party leaders on new coalition
Iceland’s president in talks with party leaders on new coalition
Starmer arrives in China to defend ‘pragmatic’ partnership
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, hoping to restore long fraught relations
BEIJING: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, hoping to restore long fraught relations.
It is the first visit to China by a UK prime minister since 2018 and follows a string of Western leaders courting Beijing in recent weeks, pivoting from a mercurial United States.
Starmer, who is also expected to visit Shanghai on Friday, will later make a brief stop in Japan to meet with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
For Xi, the trip is an opportunity to show Beijing can be a reliable partner at a time when President Donald Trump’s policies have rattled historic ties between Washington and its Western allies.
Starmer is battling record low popularity polls and hopes the visit can boost Britain’s beleaguered economy.
The trip has been lauded by Downing Street as a chance to boost trade and investment ties while raising thorny issues such as national security and human rights.
Starmer will meet with Xi for lunch on Thursday, followed by a meeting with Premier Li Qiang.
The British leader said on Wednesday this visit to China was “going to be a really important trip for us,” vowing to make “some real progress.”
There are “opportunities” to deepen bilateral relations, Starmer told reporters traveling with him on the plane to China.
“It doesn’t make sense to stick our head in the ground and bury in the sand when it comes to China, it’s in our interests to engage and not compromise on national security,” he added.
China, for its part, “is willing to take this visit as an opportunity to enhance political mutual trust,” foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun reiterated Wednesday during a news briefing.
Starmer is the latest Western leader to be hosted by Beijing in recent months, following visits by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Faced with Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Canada for signing a trade agreement with China, and the US president’s attempts to create a new international institution with his “Board of Peace,” Beijing has been affirming its support for the United Nations to visiting leaders.
Reset ties
UK-China relations plummeted in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, which severely curtailed freedoms in the former British colony.
They soured further since with both powers exchanging accusations of spying.
Starmer, however, was quick to deny fresh claims of Chinese spying after the Telegraph newspaper reported Monday that China had hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years.
“There’s no evidence of that. We’ve got robust schemes, security measures in place as you’d expect,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
Since taking the helm in 2024, Starmer has been at pains to reset ties with the world’s second-largest economy and Britain’s third-biggest trade partner.
In China, he will be accompanied by around 60 business leaders from the finance, pharmaceutical, automobile and other sectors, and cultural representatives as he tries to balance attracting vital investment and appearing firm on national security concerns.
The Labour leader also spoke to Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November 2024.
Jimmy Lai
The prime minister is also expected to raise the case of Hong Kong media mogul and democracy supporter Jimmy Lai, 78, a British national facing years in prison after being found guilty of collusion charges in December.
When asked by reporters about his plans to discuss Lai’s case, Starmer avoided specifics, but said engaging with Beijing was to ensure that “issues where we disagree can be discussed.”
“You know my practice, which is to raise issues that need to be raised,” added Starmer, who has been accused by the Conservative opposition of being too soft in his approach to Beijing.
Reporters Without Borders urged Starmer in a letter to secure Lai’s release during his visit.
The British government has also faced fierce domestic opposition after it approved this month contentious plans for a new Chinese mega-embassy in London, which critics say could be used to spy on and harass dissidents.
At the end of last year, Starmer acknowledged that China posed a “national security threat” to the UK, drawing flak from Chinese officials.
The countries also disagree on key issues including China’s close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the war in Ukraine, and accusations of human rights abuses in China.
