Iceland's prime minister to resign after Pirate Party surge

Iceland's prime minister, Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson, announced Sunday he will resign after his center-right Progressive Party lost more than half its seats in Iceland's ancient parliament, the 63-seat Althing. Johannsson had only been in office since April, when the Panama Papers scandal forced out his predecessor.

While the Progressives declined, the four-year-old Pirate Party — described as "a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians, and web geeks" — more than tripled its parliamentary presence from three seats to 10. But the new prime minister will likely come from the conservative Independence Party, which now holds the largest block in the Althing at 21 seats.

Still, the Independence Party's success should not be interpreted as "a return to the status quo," said Andres Jonsson, an Icelandic political consultant, since the party will still need to form a coalition with smaller groups like the Pirate Party to cobble together a government. "The traditional party system has been disrupted," Jonsson told The New York Times. "We are not seeing big movements of people who feel that they are able to relate with the messages of the big coalition parties. Changes are going to come from the outside, not from inside the old parties."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up