Thousands of protesters took to the strees today calling for Iceland's government to step down immediately, dismissing the prime minister's promise to resign and call an early election.
Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who is seriously ill cancer, said yesterday he would quit under the cloud of the country's economic collapse and called for a May 9th election.
Police estimated as many as 6,000 demonstrators stood on the square outside Iceland's Althing parliament, some carrying signs demanding "a new democracy".
It was the fifth straight day of protests, and the demonstration was a big as any since regular Saturday protests started in October.
Mr Haarde voiced "contempt" on Saturday for some of the actions by banks that triggered the country's financial crisis.
Iceland, one of the richest countries in the world per capita in 2007, plunged into crisis in October when it fell victim to the global credit crunch. Its currency collapsed as its financial system imploded and unemployment in the island nation of 320,000 is surging.
Mr Haarde shocked Iceland on Friday when he said he would not seek re-election and called for a
vote on May 9th. Opinion polls predict a sharp shift to the left at elections.
Mr Haarde told national radio on Saturday he had not stepped down because of the plunging popularity of his coalition and said he hoped to run the government until the elections, despite his health problems.
He said he was going abroad, probably to the Netherlands, for surgery to treat a malignant tumour of the oesophagus. He also commented for the first time on media reports of wrongdoing in Iceland's banks in the run-up to last year's crisis, when all major banks were nationalised after collapsing under the weight of billions of dollars of foreign debt.
"I would like to use this opportunity to state my disbelief and contempt for some of the things that have been coming into the daylight in regards to the banks," he said, but declined to comment on whether the actions of the banks had been criminal."
To stay afloat last year, Iceland negotiated a $10 billion aid package crafted by the International Monetary Fund and effectively froze trade in its currency.