Iceland’s ruling coalition boosts majority in election

Iceland’s ruling coalition boosted its majority in an election Saturday, according to results published Sunday. 

The country’s three governing parties together took 37 out of 63 seats in Iceland’s parliament, state broadcaster RUV reported.

The parties are now expected to enter coalition negotiations, and it remains unclear whether Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir will remain in the top post. 

The conservative Independence Party won 24.4 percent of the vote and 16 seats, maintaining its level of support compared to the previous election. The Progressive Party, meanwhile, experienced a surge, winning 17.3 percent and 13 seats — five more than in the previous ballot. 

Prime Minister Jakobsdóttir’s Left-Green Movement came in at 12.6 percent with eight seats, a decline compared to the previous election. 

At a debate ahead of the election, Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson said that the outgoing government is the first three-party coalition in Iceland to finish its term, and that if its majority holds, the three groups will discuss staying in a coalition for another four years.