Iceland Government Survives No-Confidence Vote Amid Economic Crisis
Following six hours of debate in parliament, the motion was rejected by a vote of 42 against, 19 in favor and three abstaining.
The opposition had called for early elections to replace the current coalition government, composed of Prime Minister Geir Haarde's Independence Party and the Social Democrats, which together hold 43 seats in parliament.
The next legislative elections are scheduled for 2011.
"The government is not trusted and should therefore step down," said Liberal Party leader Gudjon Arnar Kristinsson, who voted for the motion.
The government has seen its approval rating fall by half since the beginning of the year, an opinion poll published in the Frettabladid daily at the weekend showed.
Only 31.6% of Icelanders support the government, down from 41.3% a month ago and a full 71.9% in February.
Iceland's once-booming financial sector collapsed under the weight of the worldwide credit crunch, forcing the government last month to take control of the major banks as the island's currency nose-dived.
Kristinn H. Gunnarsson, a deputy for the Liberal Party, voted against the motion.
"First the government has to investigate what went wrong," he said, adding that only then can voters assess their options.
The leader of the Social Democrats, Foreign Minister Ingibjoerg Solrun Gisladottir, said in parliament that "despite discussing a (vote of) no-confidence all day, it is still not clear what the opposition is criticizing of the government's action."
Haarde said there was "no sense in having no government when companies and people need help getting through these hard times."
Iceland recently secured a bailout of almost $5 billion from the International Monetary Fund and Nordic countries, as the IMF forecast that Iceland's gross domestic product (GDP) would contract by 10% next year.
The government has forecast public debt to increase from 29% of GDP at the end of 2007 to just over 100% at the end of 2009.
The cost of the banking crisis could be as high as 85% of GDP, or 1.1 trillion kronur ($9.4 billion, it said.
-Dow Jones Newswires, 201-938-5500
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 24, 2008 17:26 ET (22:26 GMT)
Publié le 24 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones
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