Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the leader of the Left-Green Movement, has been granted the mandate to form the next Icelandic government by President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson.
Katrín met with the President earlier today to discuss the results of informal coalition talks with the Social Democratic Alliance, the Progressive Party and the Pirate Party.
President Guðni told reporters: “The mandate to form a government is not an award for performing well in the elections. That custom has never existed in Iceland. Not least of all granting the chair of the largest party the mandate automatically.”
Formal coalition talks are set to begin tomorrow, with health care, education and other important sectors expected to be important areas of discussion.
If successful, it will be the first left of centre government in Iceland since 2013, when the Social Democratic Alliance led a four year long government with the Left-Green Movement.
A coalition of those four parties will have a majority of one in the Icelandic parliament – the same majority as the last administration, made up of the Independence Party, Bright Future and the Reform Party.
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