financial crisis leads to a shift to the left in Iceland

Yesterday, general elections in Iceland took place. Good news, for several reasons. First of all, with Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the first openly gay politician in the world was elected as the head of state. This is another step forward in the social acceptance of gays.Secondly, the left parties - Samfylkingin (the Social Democratic Allegiance)  and Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð (the left-green movement) - won the overall majority in the Alþingi, the oldest running parliament in the world. Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn, the Independence Party who stands for the neoliberal policy with led into the devastating financial crisis. With a increase of 5 seats, the Greens were the big winner of the elections. Congratulations.These results are very interesting, as the Icelandic elections are the first general elections in a western European country in the light of the financial crisis.  Though the impact of Iceland on European politics are clearly limited, one hopes, that these results marks a turning point. That people realise, that the conservative parties in Europe, who stands for radical open markets messed up both economy and environment. And that the only reasonable conclusion is to vote for parties, which advocate sustainability.So there's hope for coming election, like for the EP in June or the German Bundestag in September