Author: Esther King

Posted: 25/11/2016

 

The leader of Iceland’s Left-Green Party said Friday she had given up on coalition talks and officially handed back the mandate to form a government.

Party leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir met with President Guðni Jóhannesson early on Friday to inform him of her decision, local media reported.

The country has been stuck at a political impasse following snap elections called late October after Panama Papers revelations prompted the prime minister to resign.

The Left-Green Party suspended talks with four other parties on Wednesday after they failed to agree on health and education funding, Jakobsdóttir said.

The center-right Independence Party, which won the largest share of the vote in October, also failed to form a government.

Jakobsdóttir told local media she was open to all options in terms of a future government, including a minority government.

Birgitta Jonsdottir, the head of the Pirate Party, which received the same number of seats as the Left-Green Party and came third in the October vote, has said she is ready to try to form a government if called upon by the president to do so.

 

Source: http://www.politico.eu/article/icelands-left-green-party-ends-coalition-talks/