Progressive Party (Iceland)
| This article is part of the Politics of Iceland series. |
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| This article is part of the Politics of Iceland series. |
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President |
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The Progressive Party (Icelandic: Framsóknarflokkurinn) is an agrarian and liberal party in Iceland. The party is a member of the Liberal International. Iceland's current Prime Minister, Halldór Ásgrímsson, is a Progressive and governs in coalition with the conservative Independence Party. From 1995 to 2004, it participated in the coalition as the junior partner, but the two parties agreed after the 2003 legislative elections that Ásgrímsson would become Prime Minister in September 2004. He took office on September 15.
Though the Progressive Party was originally founded as an agrarian party and still finds most of its support from farmers and fishermen, it has gradually adopted the position of a liberal party in the political spectrum. It was founded in 1916 as a merger of two agrarian parties, the Farmers Party (Bændaflokkur) and the Independent Farmers (Óháðir bændur).
Throughout Iceland's history as a self-governing and independent nation, the Progressive Party has most often been the second largest political party in the country. It has often joined government coalitions with either the Independence Party on the right, or with left-wing parties.