The party is a varied collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians, and “web geeks”. Policy is set through online polls. It wants Iceland to be free of “digital snooping” and has offered Snowden asylum. In 2016 almost anything appears possible in politics with the U.K. voting to leave the EU via the Brexit and Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination for president in the U.S.
Jonsdottir and other party supporters claim the party is neither left nor right, but combines the best of both. Jonsdottir says: “People want real changes and they understand that we have to change the systems, we have to modernise how we make laws.” Professor Ragnheidur Kristjandottir of the University of Iceland said: “The Pirates are promising people a new kind of politics. Less corrupt politics where people can participate in a more direct way.”
Iceland has the world’s oldest known parliament. It began in 930 AD with a gathering of Norse settlers. It was the 2008 financial crisis that began political upheavals in Iceland. Bankers were actually sent to jail and there were street protests against the government. When the Panama Papers showed that an offshore company owned by the Prime Minister’s wife had a claim on Iceland’s collapsed banks, thousands of protesters took to the streets. Considered as a percentage of the total population they were “the largest demonstrations of any kind, in any country, ever (proportionately speaking)”. The Prime Minister resigned and new elections were called. Professor Kristjansdottir said: “The distrust that had long been germinating has now exploded. The Pirates are riding on that wave. We’ve had new parties before, and then they’ve faded. What’s surprising is that they’re maintaining their momentum.” A recent poll with data from the 14-19 of October from the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland puts the Pirate Party in first place for the election with 22.6 percent of the vote. The election is this Saturday the 29th of October.
