Social Democratic Alliance

This article is about the Icelandic political party. For other uses, see Social Democratic Alliance (disambiguation).

Social Democratic Alliance Samfylkingin
Chairperson	Árni Páll Árnason
Vice-chairperson	Katrín Júlíusdóttir
Chairperson of the board	Sema Erla Serdar
Chairperson of the parliamentary group	Helgi Hjörvar
Chairperson of the municipal council	Ólafur Þór Ólafsson
Founded	5 May 2000
Merger of	People's Alliance Social Democratic Party National Awakening Women's List
Headquarters	Hallveigarstígur 1, 101 Reykjavík
Youth wing	Social Democratic Youth
Ideology	Social democracy, Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Centre-left
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists (Associate)
International affiliation	Socialist International
Nordic affiliation	SAMAK
Colours	Red, Orange
Seats in the Althing	9 / 63
Website
www.samfylkingin.is
Politics of Iceland Political parties Elections

The Social Democratic Alliance (Icelandic: Samfylkingin-Jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands) is a social-democratic political party in Iceland. It is centre-left in alignment. It became the largest party in the Icelandic parliament after the 2009 Icelandic election, forming a coalition government along with the Left-Green Movement, until returning to opposition status after the 2013 Icelandic election.

History

The Social Democratic Alliance was born in the run-up to the parliamentary elections of 1999 as an alliance of the four left-wing parties that had existed in Iceland up till then: the Social Democratic Party, the People's Alliance, the Women's List and National Awakening. The parties then formally merged in May 2000 under the name "The Alliance" (Samfylkingin). The merger was a deliberate attempt to unify the entire Icelandic centre-left into one political party capable of countering the centre-right Independence Party. The initial attempt failed however as a group of Alþingi representatives rejected the new party's platform – which was inspired by that of Tony Blair's New Labour – and broke away before the merger to found the Left-Green Movement, based on more traditional democratic socialist values as well as green politics and euroscepticism. The Icelandic Movement – Living Country merged into the party in March 2009. In February 2013 the official name of the party was changed to "The Alliance – Social Democratic Party of Iceland" (Samfylkingin – Jafnaðarmannaflokkur Íslands).

The current chair of the party is Árni Páll Árnason, who was elected in February 2013 to succeed Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the outgoing Prime Minister of Iceland. Katrín Júlíusdóttir, formerly Minister of Industry and Minister of Finance in Jóhanna's cabinet, has been vice chair since the same date. The youth wing of the Social Democratic Alliance is Social Democratic Youth.

Electoral results

Election	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Government
1999	44,378	26.8	17 / 63	17	2nd	Opposition
2003	56,700	31.0	20 / 63	3	2nd	Opposition
2007	48,743	26.8	18 / 63	2	2nd	Coalition
2009	55,758	29.8	20 / 63	2	1st	Coalition
2013	24,292	12.9	9 / 63	11	3rd	Opposition

Chairpersons

Chairperson	Period
Margrét Frímannsdóttir	1999–2000
Össur Skarphéðinsson	2000–2005
Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir	2005–2009
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir	2009–2013
Árni Páll Árnason	2013–present

Members of the parliament

Member		Since	Title	Constituency
Árni Páll Árnason		2007	Party Leader	Southwest
Helgi Hjörvar		2003	Member of Parliament	Reykjavik South
Katrín Júlíusdóttir		2003	Member of Parliament	Southwest
Kristján L. Möller		1999	Member of Parliament	Northeast
Oddný G. Harðardóttir		2009	Member of Parliament	South
Össur Skarphéðinsson		1991	Member of Parliament	Reykjavik North
Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir		2009	Member of Parliament	Reykjavik South
Valgerður Bjarnadóttir		2009	Member of Parliament	Reykjavik North

External links

• The Official Site (in Icelandic)