Parliament House

Next to the park was the Icelandic Parliament, or Alþingi. It is the oldest extant parliamentary institution in the world, dating from 930, although the current location has only been used since 1845, when the Alþingi moved here from Þingvellir (which Ron planned to visit later). The current basalt building only dates back to 1881.
Ron liked the ruling Independence Party (Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn), although it was not as friendly to conservatives as most Scandinavian right wing parties. It has won every election since independence in 1944, and has generally ruled Iceland well. There were recent elections last month, in which this party won 25 of the 63 seats in the Alþing. Their leader, Geir Haarde, was Prime Minister. Unfortunately, he needed to form a coalition with the yucky center-left Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin-Jafnaðarmannaflokkur) in order to rule.Read more