The Union Party () was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. It was founded after the

1911 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1911. Africa * Liberian general election * Mauritius general election * Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council election Europe * Bulgarian Constitutional Assembly election * Bulgarian parliamentar ...

as an alliance between the Home Rule Party under

Hannes Hafstein Hannes Þórður Pétursson Hafstein (4 December 1861 – 13 December 1922) was an Icelandic politician and poet. In 1904 he became the first Icelander to be appointed to the Cabinets of Denmark, Danish Cabinet as the minister for Iceland in the ...

, the moderate part of the Independence Party and some Independents. When the

Althing The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the Parliamentary sovereignty, supreme Parliament, national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at ('Thing (assembly), thing ...

convened in July 1912 the party was formally registered as a parliamentary group comprising 32 of the 40 members and Hannes Hafstein was appointed

Minister for Iceland Minister for Iceland (, ; ) was a post in the Danish cabinet for Icelandic affairs. History The post was established on 5 January 1874 as, according to the Constitution of Iceland, the executive power rested in the king of Denmark through the D ...

. The purpose of the party was to solve the issue of a union treaty between

and

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, which had proven extremely difficult to solve after the Althing refused a draft proposal from the Danish-Icelandic constitutional commission in 1908. A compromise proposal presented by Hannes in spring 1913 was heavily criticized in the Icelandic press, and the Union Party split into three factions, a group that continued to support Hannes, a restored Home Rule Party under the leadership of

Lárus H. Bjarnason Larus is a large genus of gulls with worldwide distribution Larus or Lárus may also refer to: * Larus, ancient Cantabrian mercenary * Lárus Guðmundsson, Icelandic professional footballer * Lárus Sigurðsson, Icelandic former professional footb ...

and a Farmers' Party. Hannes succeeded in getting most of the party's MPs members reunited, apart from four MPs that continued as the Farmers' Party, and a constitutional proposal was finally approved in the fall of 1913. Upon reunification the party was formally registered as the Home Rule Party, but was still commonly known as the Union Party. The supporters of Hannes lost the 1914 election and he subsequently resigned. The constitutional proposal was approved for a second time by the Althing in 1914 and formed the basis for the union treaty of 1918.

References

Defunct political parties in Iceland Political parties established in 1912 Political parties disestablished in 1914 {{Iceland-poli-stub