In 1994, the Social Democratic Party split, and as a result they suffered a huge loss in the 1995 parliamentary elections. The coalition government maintained its majority, but only by one seat. Davíð Oddsson therefore decided to form a coalition with the Progressive Party, whose leader, Halldór Ásgrímsson, became Minister of Foreign Affairs. In the new government, privatisation was continued on a much greater scale than before: a large and important chain of fish processing plants was sold; part-public or public investment funds were merged and sold as a private investment bank; the two commercial banks under government control were sold in a few stages; the two coalition parties accepted the loud demands from many people for a charge to be imposed on the holders of fishing quotas.