The leader of Iceland's center-right Progressive Party was chosen as the island nation's new prime minister Wednesday and promptly announced a halt to talks with the European Union about Iceland joining the 27-nation bloc, AP reported. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson spoke about policy shift at a press conference after being selected premier. "The government intends to halt negotiations between Iceland and the European Union," he said. "We will not hold further negotiations with the European Union without prior referendum." The new center-right government will also include Bjarni Benediktsson, head of the Independent Party, who will serve as minister of finance. Icelanders voted April 27, returning to power the parties who had governed for decades before the 2008 economic collapse, the conservative Independent Party and the rural-based Progressive Party. The parties had ruled together from 1995 until the 2008 fiasco. After the collapse of the Icelandic banking sector that year, Icelanders voted in a liberal government led by the Social Democrats and the Left-Greens. The small North Atlantic nation with a population of 320,000 went from economic powerhouse to financial disaster almost overnight when its main commercial banks collapsed within a week. The value of the country's currency plummeted, while inflation and unemployment figures soared. Iceland was forced to seek bailouts from Europe and the International Monetary Fund.
