Iceland: Political developments and data in 2025: New government breaks a 160-hour-long filibuster during its first year

Abstract

The first year of the new centre-left government of the Social Democrats, Liberal Reform, and the People’s Party was quite eventful, but the government remained popular. A majority of voters continued to claim support for the government according to the monthly Gallup polls. The parliamentary majority used a clause on cloture vote in the Parliament Act to break a filibuster that had lasted for 160 hours – a clause that had not been used for decades. The filibuster was an attempt to avoid a vote on a government bill raising fishing fees in the Icelandic quota system of fisheries. The bill and the break of the filibuster were supported by a large majority of voters according to opinion polls. This may lead to the end of a long tradition of using extremely long filibusters in Parliament.