Icelandic Pirates set sail for mainstream
Iceland’s Pirates may be about to make history as a new opinion poll conducted by the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland for Icelandic daily Morgunbladid indicates that over one in five voters will be voting Pirate.
Published: October 24, 2016, 11:11 am
The data from 14-19 October, puts the Pirate Party in first place with 22.6%, ahead of the centre-right Independence Party, currently in power, as public cynicism with a political system long steered by an insider clique has taken root.
If the Iceland’s 63-seat national parliament (‘Alþingi’) are led by the Pirates, Edward Snowden will be invited to move to Iceland, they say.
This is 2016 where political “impossibilities” have become reality. Britain voted for Brexit and Donald Trump won the Republican nomination. Soon the Pirate Party may be the first of its kind in Europe.
The hacker-led movement is leading a direct-democracy uprising across Europe. The gaggle of geeks, hackers, anarchists and libertarians sets policy through online polls and wants to turn Iceland into privacy haven, free of digital snooping.
The rise of the Pirates from radical fringe to the main party in Icelandic politics, has even taken the party’s founder, a poet, Web programmer and former WikiLeaks activist, by surprise. The 49-year-old Birgitta Jónsdóttir said she never envisioned the party governing so soon.
Jónsdóttir, who could soon could lead Iceland’s parliament in Reykjavík as prime minister, has occupied a parliamentary seat for seven years, since 2012 as the front person of the Pirate Party.
The unlikely politician told THe Nation she would stand by to watch the Pirates devolve into just another hack party in a dysfunctional system, but instead reinvest power in the legislature to bring politics closer to the people.
“We’re fighting for fundamental democratic change,” Jónsdóttir explained.
The beautiful island just beyond the Arctic Circle has a population of 323,000, with no military and an economy rooted in tourism and fishing. The country is equitable, peaceful and prosperous, and home to the world’s oldest parliament.
Their governing body dates back to a gathering of Norse settlers in A.D. 930. As Paul Hockenos from The Nation notes, Nordic-style parliamentary democracy, dominated for decades by pro-NATO conservatives, “was shattered when the country went bust in the 2008 financial crisis, pitching Iceland into its deepest crisis since full independence and the republic were declared in 1944″.
Since then Iceland has been afflicted by the same anti-establishment fervor that has swept the rest of the Western world in recent years.
“People here are angry and frustrated,” says Karl Blöndal, deputy editor of the center-right Morgunbladid. “In the minds of many voters, the Pirates are the only untainted party.”
The 2008 global financial crisis brought the once highflying economy to ruin, saved only by a $4.6 billion international bailout. Bankers went to jail, and a street protest movement was born which saw a resurgence after the Panama Papers were released.
The leak revealed an offshore company owned by the prime minister’s wife linked to one of Iceland’s collapsed banks. The conflict of interest led to demonstrations with thousands of protesters taking to the streets.
The Pirates are part of an international movement of the same name. In Iceland, their programmes include fishing quotas, a new take on online pornography and of course Snowden. Party leaders have offered him Icelandic citizenship.
But on whether Iceland should join the European Union, for instance, the Pirates have not taken a stand, insisting instead that the matter should be decided in a national referendum.
The Pirates started as a Swedish movement to counter digital copyright laws, and has proposed making the country “a digital safe haven” much like Switzerland is a haven to safe banking.
The first Pirate Party was founded ten years ago by Rick Falkvinge in Sweden. Since then, the idea has spread to other countries, including the UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.
Sweden’s Path into NATO – What has happened
For over 200 years, Sweden has maintained its non-alignment and neutrality. Although the political parties have been predominantly supportive of NATO, they have refrained from pushing the issue, as public opinion has strongly favored maintaining neutrality. However, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the time seemed ripe. It suddenly became urgent to join NATO before public opinion shifted back. However, the burning of Qurans and Turkey’s capriciousness have caused complications.
Spela på dina egna villkor
Det är väl inte särskilt konstigt att man vill kunna bestämma själv över olika val i sitt liv, som med hur man vill använda sig av olika spel. Denna möjlighet är dock större då man väljer onlinespel.
Health Benefits of CBD and What People Use It For
The CBD compound is the second most popular compound we get through extraction from hemp and cannabis plants. The number one in popularity is THC, of course. When we think of THC, we usually connect it to the state of feeling “high,” sometimes even too intensely.
Australian doctors denounce anti-hydroxychloroquine study as fake
MelbourneAustralian infectious disease researchers have raised the alarm about fake data in a study published in The Lancet denouncing the drug hydroxychloroquine in the treatment Covid-19. The Australian Department of Health has been stockpiling millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine.
‘Shugaley’: In the hands of Islamist terrorists
The Coronavirus pandemic has not been not an obstacle for the release of a new Russian movie about Libyan war, available online from April.
Roger Scruton’s friend: ‘He gave us hope’
Conservative philosopher Roger Scruton is dead. He died on January 12 of cancer. Scruton was honoured in 2016, but last year was subjected to a brutal smear campaign by the mainstream media and was at the end of his life persona non grata among the establishment. When death was imminent, Scruton told him that he had been deprived of both health and reputation, but expressed no resentment, only gratitude for all the positive things he had been involved in. The Swedish news outlet Nya Tider has spoke to Scruton's friend Gregory Lauder-Frost from the Traditional Britain Group.
Merry Christmas to all our readers!
The editorial staff of FreeWestMedia wishes you a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year! We thank you for the loyalty you have shown us throughout the year and for your support.
Australia creates fake horoscopes to deter Sri Lankan migrants
CanberraFor two years, Australian authorities have been broadcasting horoscopes with harmful predictions to dissuade potential migrants from carrying out their project.
Will the Yellow Vests conquer the municipal elections?
In the run-up to the 2020 municipal elections, the Yellow Vests intend to weigh in by loudly claiming their demands at a local level. And they will do so without necessarily presenting a list.
