Monday, January 26, 2009

Icelandic government collapses.

It's anarchy! Polar bears and penguins living together! Mass hysteria! From CNN:
Iceland's ruling coalition resigned Monday, three months after the collapse of the country's currency, stock market and several major banks, and following months of public protests, Kristjan Kristjansson, a spokesman for the prime minister told CNN.

The government also fell after the resignation of the government's commerce minister in response to the country's financial mess. The minister, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, resigned Sunday, saying the government had failed to restore confidence in the three months after the collapse of the financial system.

Senior government officials from the two parties that make up Iceland's coalition government -- the prime minister's Independence Party and the Social Democrats party -- had met Sunday to discuss the government's future but nothing was resolved, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

Sigurdsson's resignation followed Saturday's demonstration in which about 6,000 to 7,000 people in front of the parliament building called for the government of Prime Minister Geir Haarde to step down.

Protests have been staged regularly since the collapse, but Saturday's was one of the biggest to date, a spokesman for the prime minister said.

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