History
The Liberal Party was founded by Sverrir Hermannsson, a former MP of the Independence Party and CEO of Landsbanki, in November 1998.
In 2006/7, the minor New Force party merged into the Liberal Party, which caused the prominent Liberal Party member Margrét Sverrisdóttir to leave the party and join the Icelandic Movement - Living Land, threatening to split the Liberal Party.
The party has, before the 2007 parliament elections, moved from being primarily focused on issues of fishing quotas and small fishing communities toward immigration. It is the only political party in Iceland that supports strict restrictions on immigration, and consequently the party has been accused of xenophobia. The party conducted a members' poll in January 2009 in order to determine its EU stance. The outcome was against EU-accession of Iceland. The party supports strict neutrality.
In February 2009, two of the Liberal Party's parliamentarians left the party; Jón Magnússon joined the Independence Party and Kristinn H. Gunnarsson joined the Progressive Party.
Read more about this topic: Liberal Party (Iceland)
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