This Saturday Iceland goes to the polls for the second time in a year against the backdrop of yet another government collapsing in scandal.

In this election, however, the leading opposition to the dominant right-wing Independence Party is the Left-Greens, a party descended from the country’s socialist tradition aiming to lead a government for the first time.

Formed in 1999 by groups opposed to the social-liberal policies of the new Social Democratic Alliance, the Left-Greens aligned themselves with anti-neoliberal and movement-based parties across Europe. In 2009 they entered government for the first time as junior partners to the Social Democrats and won re-election later that year amid the country’s financial crisis.