Iceland in 2007  View All (3)  102,928 sq km (39,741 sq mi)
(2007 est.): 310,000 President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Prime
Minister Geir H. Haarde  Elections to Iceland’s Althingi
(parliament) were held in May 2007. The incumbent government
coalition, made up of the Independence Party and the Progressive
Party, barely survived with a majority of one vote in the
63-member body. Because this majority was considered too slim,
the leader of the Independence Party, Prime Minister Geir H.
Haarde, decided to form a new coalition with the Social
Democrats, giving his new government a majority with 43 votes.
Iceland’s economy began to slow down in the course of 2007,
following the vigorous pace of growth of the previous several
years. The Kárahnjúkar 690-MW hydropower station in the
northeastern part of the country was completed and began
supplying power to the Alcoa aluminum plant at Reyðarfjörður.
The construction of the power station provoked a bitter debate
in the country on the use of natural resources, damage to t