Best Party
Besti flokkurinn |
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Chairperson | Jón Gnarr |
Vice-chairperson | Heiða Kristín Helgadóttir |
Founder | Jón Gnarr |
Founded | 16 November 2009 |
Dissolved | 16 June 2014 |
Headquarters | Laugavegur 40a, Reykjavík |
Membership (2011) | 1193 |
National affiliation | Bright Future |
International affiliation | Pirate Parties International (observer) |
Colours | Blue / Pink |
The Best Party (Icelandic: Besti flokkurinn) was an Icelandic political party founded by Jón Gnarr on 16 November 2009. The party ran in the 2010 city council election in Reykjavík and won a plurality on the Reykjavík City Council, receiving 34.7% of the vote, defeating the Independence Party which received 33.6%. It was a member of the International Pirate Party, but not associated with Pirate Party Iceland. Jón Gnarr announced that the party was to be dissolved after he stepped down as mayor after the upcoming local elections in May 2014. Many of the Best Party's members have joined Bright Future, although Jón himself stopped political participation.
The founder and chairman of the party was the former Mayor of Reykjavik Jón Gnarr. The party was founded several months after the Icelandic parliamentary election in 2009, and competes on the national level as the Bright Future party, led by MP and Best Party Vice President Heiða Kristín Helgadóttir. Bright Future currently holds six seats in the Althing.
The party's initial success is seen as a backlash against establishment parties in the wake of Iceland's 2008–2011 financial crisis.
The Best Party was founded in late 2009 by Jón Gnarr, an Icelandic actor, comedian and writer. Originally a joke party, it from the beginning stated that it would not honour any of its election promises. It claimed all other parties are secretly corrupt, and promised to be openly corrupt. Among its original goals was to satirize common themes in Icelandic politics, partly by mimicking the standard phrases, idioms and jargon used by Icelandic politicians.