Faroese general election, 2015

Faroese general election, 2015

← 2011 1 September 2015 2019 →
Turnout	88.8%
Party Leader % Seats ± Social Democratic Aksel V. Johannesen 25.1% 8 +2 Republic Høgni Hoydal 20.7% 7 +1 People's Jørgen Niclasen 18.9% 6 -2 Union Kaj Leo Johannesen 18.7% 6 -2 Progress Poul Michelsen 7.0% 2 0 Centre Jenis av Rana 5.5% 2 0 Self-Government Jógvan Skorheim 4.1% 2 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister before Prime Minister Kaj Leo Johannesen Union Aksel V. Johannesen Social Democratic

General elections were held in the Faroe Islands on 1 September 2015.Elections for the Danish Folketing were held beforehand on 18 June.

On 4 August 2015 the Løgting passed a motion that criticized Prime Minister Kaj Leo Johannesen and former Minister of the Interior Kári P. Højgaard, accusing Johannesen of lying to the Løgting in connection with a 1 million kroner break fee clause in the contract led by the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to build a sub-sea tunnel between Eysturoy and Streymoy.

Although Johannesen had previously told the Løgting that he had no part of the break fee, a judicial inquiry led by Hans Gammeltoft-Hansen (the Danish ombudsman from 1987 until 2012) confirmed in June 2015 that Johannesen had knowingly misled the Løgting on several occasions, thereby breaking the law. For some time not much happened, the Prime Minister refused to take any action but went on holiday for a month. The speaker of the Løgting refused to assemble parliament, which had no scheduled meeting before 29 July 2015.

On 29 July Johannesen gave his annual Ólavsøka speech to the Løgting, ending it by calling general elections. A week later on 4 August, the Løgting assembled to discuss the Johannesen's speech, as the law requires. All 33 members of the Løgting voted yes, including Højgaard. Republic and Progress then demanded a vote of no confidence in Johannesen, in which 14 MPs voted for the motion, 9 against it and 10 cast blank votes, short of the majority of 17 required to pass the motion. Only 9 of 20 MPs from Johannesen’s coalition chose to back him and voted against the motion, including six from his own party, the Speaker Jógvan á Lakjuni from the People's Party and the two MPs from the Centre Party. However, three Union Party MPs cast blank votes, including Deputy Chairman Bárður Nielsen, whilst People's Party chairman Jákup Mikkelsen voted for the motion.