Surprised by the Iceland Pirate Party? In recent months we often read about the love story between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in a seemingly endless election cycle in the United States. But in tiny Iceland (population 323.000) something very interesting is happening.
The Icelandic Pirate Party, which until recently was considered a fringe politics movement, is poised to win an unprecedented electoral victory.
The latest polls show that it will be able to get 20 percent of the votes. So, he is likely to get more seats at Althing and take part in the next Icelandic government as a coalition party.
TorrentFreak polls were conducted between 14 and 19 October by the Institute of Social Sciences Research at the University of Iceland for the daily newspaper Morgunblaðið.
All show that the Icelandic Pirate Party is in first place, with 22,6 percent of the vote share. This puts it slightly ahead of the Independence Party, which is currently in power.
It should be noted that support for the Pirate Party has risen since the release of Panama Papers and after. In the leaked data it is alleged that several members of the Icelandic political establishment are mentioned and involved in acts of corruption and tax evasion.
Pirate politics is still a relatively new move. The first Pirate Party was founded in Sweden ten years ago by Rick Falkvinge. Since then, the idea has spread to other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands. Of course, the Pirates Party could not miss Greece.
Generally speaking, Piratical Parties are ardent supporters of intellectual property rights and patent law reform, government transparency, and direct democracy.
What does the future say? If the Icelandic Pirates Party succeeds in catching up with the polls, it will be the first time that such a Party will have an important role to play in the governance of a country.
Combined with the successes of both the Swedish Party and Germany in the previous elections to the European Parliament, it shows that Pirate Policy is slowly entering the mainstream.