n Fræðigreinar STJÓRNMÁL & STJÓRNSÝSLA Populism in Iceland: Has the Progressive Party turned populist? Eiríkur Bergmann, Professor of Politics, Bifrost University Abstract Though nationalism has always been strong in Iceland, populist political parties did not emerge as a viable force until after the financial crisis of 2008. On wave of the crisis a completely renewed leadership took over the country’s old agrarian party, the Progressive Party (PP), which was rapidly transformed in a more populist direction. Still the PP is perhaps more firmly nationalist than populist. However, when analyzing communicational changes of the new post- crisis leadership it is unavoidable to categorize the party amongst at least the softer version of European populist parties, perhaps closest to the Norwegian Progress Party. Keywords: Populism; Progressive Party; Framsóknarflokkurinn; Iceland Introducton Right wing nationalistic populist politics have been on the rise throughout Europe, grad- ually growing in several rounds since the 1970s and heightening in wake of the financial crisis in the early new century. Though nationalism thoroughly is, and has always in modern days been, strong in Iceland, populist political parties similar to those on the European continent and throughout Scandinavia did not emerge as a viable force until at least after the financial crisis of 2008, which hit Iceland severely hard. Out of the Nordic five Iceland suffered the most profound crisis, when its entire oversized financial system came tumbling down. The currency tanked spurring rampant inflation and sud- den economic devastation (for more, see Bergmann 2014). Icelandic Review of Politics and Administration Vol 11, Issue 1 ( 33-54 ) © 2015 Contacts: Eiríkur Bergmann,
[email protected] Article first published online June 23rd 2015 on http://www.irpa.is Publisher: Institute of Public Administration and Politics, Gimli, Sæmundargötu 1, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland Stjórnmál & stjórnsýsla 1.