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Iceland's snap election: Weather and economy shake up political landscape

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Iceland faces major political shift as voters head to polls during snowstorm. Economic pressure and rising costs push citizens to seek new leadership after seven-year coalition rule

On this cold Nov 30th Icelands 384‚000 citizens are heading to voting stations despite heavy snow-fall (which might slow-down vote counting in eastern regions)

The ruling three-party coalition thats been in charge since 17ʼ looks ready to lose its grip on power. Recent opinion polls show a clear shift towards opposition parties‚ as the nations cost-of-living problems get worse; inflation rates and loan costs hit levels not seen since the 08ʼ financial crash

The countryʼs situation got more complex when several volcano-eruptions near capital made tourism drop and forced thousands to move. Plus the population grew by 20% in last decade which put extra load on housing and health-care systems: this created a perfect-storm of problems

  • Left-Green Movement
  • Independence Party
  • Progressive Party

The current PM took over after Katrin Jakobsdottir stepped down for a failed presidential run‚ but couldnt keep coalition together due to fights about migration energy and housing. Now Kristrun Frostadottir – the 36-year old leader of Social Democrats might become the next leader

Pro-EU parties like Social Democrats and Liberal Reform are getting lots of support with polls showing they could get 40% of votes together. Frostadottir has been pushing hard on fixing economic issues: “The biggest issue here right now is cost of living“ [[Social Democratic leader stated during interview]]

Ethan Caldwell

Economics

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