The party of former Prime Minister Aksel V. Johannesen won 26.6 percent in the elections on Thursday, radio station KVF reported on Friday evening after all votes had been counted. The strongest party so far, the conservative People’s Party, fell to 18.9 percent. Prime Minister Bárdurá Steig Nielsen’s Liberal Union Party reached 20 percent after minor losses.
The Faroe Islands are thus facing a change of government. The 50-year-old Johannesen, who was Prime Minister of the Faroese from 2015 to 2019, has the best cards to become prime minister again. However, he needs at least two junior partners for a majority in the Løgting parliament. His Social Democrats get nine of the 33 seats, 17 are needed for a majority.
The Faroe Islands, with a population of about 54,000, is located in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and Scotland. They officially belong to the Kingdom of Denmark, but are largely autonomous.
The election was premature after the previous governing coalition fell apart in a dispute over the rights of gay parents and their children. 39,000 Faroese were eligible to vote. Turnout was about 88 percent.
(SDA)