REYKJAVIK, Iceland ��The man who probably will be Iceland's next prime minister says he knows how to deal with the global wave of populism threatening the established order: deliver plenty of economic growth and jobs.
Bjarni Benediktsson, leader of the conservative Independence Party, emerged Sunday as the big winner in the nation's snap election. The populist Pirate Party, which had led in some polls even though it is only 4 years old, largely failed to live up to its hype. In a year that the British people voted to leave the European Union and political outsider Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for president in the United Stated, Icelanders were persuaded to vote for the status quo.
"We just took a stand against populist ideas," Benediktsson said in an interview Sunday. "What we've been saying lately is, don't overspend, don't overpromise, just keep your way when things are going well. They were calling for us to push the refresh button and we said, 'Well, there's no need to.' "
Even so, Benediktsson, finance minister in the outgoing government, will need all his negotiating skills to put together a parliamentary majority. Because of the governing Progressive Party's poor performance in Saturday's election _ it retained only 8 of the 19 seats won in 2013 _ the next coalition will necessarily have to be expanded to at least one more party in a country where the center is losing ground.
In Benediktsson's favor are the lowest unemployment rate and one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe, only eight years after the implosion of its banking system plunged Iceland into the worst recession in six decades and turned it into a financial pariah.
"This is going to be a completely different set of challenges than we were faced with three or four years ago," Benediktsson said. "So it's going to be exciting. I think good times are ahead for Icelanders."
The Progressive Party was badly punished by voters as a result of its former leader's dealings with offshore accounts, while Benediktsson's party increased its support. Final results showed that nearly one in three voters cast their ballots for Independence, making it parliament's biggest force by far. The Pirates and the Left-Greens can't even match the Independents' 21 seats if their forces are combined.
While the Pirate Party fell short of expectations, the loose collective of Internet activists and direct democracy activists did gain a sizable following that will make it the second-biggest party in parliament, along with the Left-Greens. Its gains could have been stymied by heavy rains and wind on Saturday, which kept turnout down and potentially the younger voters at home. A total of 195,200 votes were cast for a turnout of 79.2 percent, down from 81.9 percent in 2013.
One likely candidate for a coalition with Benediktsson's Independence is A Bright Future, a centrist movement; another is Revival, a free-market party that was founded earlier this year by disgruntled Independence Party members. One potential sticking point is the country's relationship with the European Union. Iceland is part of the European Economic Area, which has near-free trade with the EU.
The key now is to find stability.
"It's a strong government that we need now," Benediktsson said. "Things are going quite well at the moment, we have strong growth, low unemployment, so the new government has to be able to follow through on that."
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(Sammy Jenkins and Samuel Parker contributed to this report.)
