[4] The 2017 parliamentary election was called after the collapse of the coalition government between the Independence Party, Viðreisn, and Bright Future after the withdrawal of the latter over a breach of trust involving a request to grant a convicted child sex offender "restored honor" from the father of Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson.
[14] After meeting with Jóhannesson, Left-Green leader Katrín Jakobsdóttir declared that she wanted to form a government with the four former opposition parties,[15] noting that though a coalition with additional parties would provide more than 32 seats, it was out of consideration before a four-party coalition was first attempted.
Jóhannesson granted Katrín Jakobsdóttir, leader of the Left-Green Movement, the mandate to form a coalition between her party, the Progressives, Social Democratic Alliance, and Pirates,[17] the four having agreed to begin formal coalition talks.
[24] The 63 members of the Althing were elected by open list proportional representation in six multi-member constituencies, with 54 seats distributed between parties at the constituency level with no electoral threshold and 9 leveling seats assigned to party lists at the national level with a threshold of 5 percent required in order to ensure proportionality with the election result.
[33] Finance Minister Bjarni Benediktsson dismissed those arguments, saying that gaining power had involved "blood, sweat and tears", and he had no interest in giving it away half a year earlier than required.
[34] On 24 July 2020, Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir announced that the it would take place on 25 September 2021, a month earlier than required, calling the decision "a compromise".
The Centre Party saw its vote percentage and seat count reduced by half compared to the prior elections, while the Progressive Party saw a vote percentage increase of over 6% and a seat increase of 5.
[37] It was initially reported that 33 women and 30 men were elected, making Iceland the first European nation to have a female-majority parliament.
[38] Among them was Lenya Rún Taha Karim of the Pirate Party, who at 21 would become the youngest MP in Iceland's history.