Benediktsson said fresh parliamentary elections are expected to take place on 30 November, if President Halla Tómasdóttir accepts his motion to dissolve parliament.
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00:00People in Iceland could be heading back to the polls in November after Prime Minister
00:06Bjarni Benediktsson announced the dissolution of the country's governing coalition.
00:11Speaking at a surprise press conference in Reykjavik, Benediktsson cited infighting between
00:16the three political parties that make up the coalition as his reason for ending it.
00:22Iceland's coalition government is made up of Benediktsson's Conservative Independence
00:26Party, the centre-right Progressive Party and the leftist Greens.
00:30There is a lot of information about the decisions in the referendum.
00:35It has been made public.
00:37We have been informed for a long time in the government about the future of the use of
00:43force.
00:44And now it is the case that the provisions of the law on force and law enforcement have
00:50become more firm in the government in some way.
00:54Benediktsson said parliamentary elections are slated to take place on the 30th of November
00:58if President Hatla Tomas Dottir accepts the motion to dissolve parliament.
01:03But one member of the coalition said the decision had come as a surprise.
01:07It would have been better if we had discussed the issue of law enforcement.
01:12I would like to mention the issue of housing and the issue of human rights.
01:16I think that would have been the most important issue.
01:21The ruling coalition in power since November 2021 has faltered under a raft of problems,
01:29particularly after a series of volcanic eruptions in the country forced thousands to evacuate
01:35their homes.
01:36That put more pressure on an economy already dealing with high inflation and rising interest
01:41rates.