Interview by Ronan Burtenshaw

This Saturday Iceland goes to the polls for the second time in a year against the backdrop of yet another government collapsing in scandal.

In this election, however, the leading opposition to the dominant right-wing Independence Party is the Left-Greens, a party descended from the country’s socialist tradition aiming to lead a government for the first time.

Formed in 1999 by groups opposed to the social-liberal policies of the new Social Democratic Alliance, the Left-Greens aligned themselves with anti-neoliberal and movement-based parties across Europe. In 2009 they entered government for the first time as junior partners to the Social Democrats and won re-election later that year amid the country’s financial crisis.

Their participation in that government was controversial, with cuts to government spending and their support for repayments to British and Dutch governments related to the collapse of IceSave Bank proving unpopular.

But, four years after leaving government, the party, standing on a platform of defending Iceland’s welfare state and renewing its politics, is on the cusp of power, vying for first place in the polls with the Independence Party as election approaches.

Jacobin Europe editor Ronan Burtenshaw speaks with Left-Green Movement leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir about the reasons behind the party’s rise, its platform for this election, and what it aims to achieve in government.