The Pirate Party may sound like a novelty political outfit, but this former ragtag bunch of internet activists may be on the verge of winning Iceland's parliamentary elections Saturday.
The party was founded less than four years ago and promises a radical platform. Its members want to legalize drugs, crowd-source their policies using online referendums, and grant citizenship to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The majority of polls over the past 18 months have predicted the party will win the most votes on Saturday — a radical pirate victory in the land of the Vikings. "I think it's because we have been approaching politics in a new way," said Pirate Party lawmaker Ásta Helgadóttir, explaining her movement's exponential rise. "We have been trying to do more evidence-based politics rather than just following ideas blindly." Iceland's population of some 320,000 is half the size of Boston's and its landmass would comfortably fit inside the state of Colorado. It is a NATO member but has no armed forces, instead contributing to the alliance with cash and civilian personnel. While politics on this small island of snow and volcanoes may seem insignificant when compared to the boisterous U.S. presidential race, the rise of Iceland's Pirate Party mirrors a global trend that has seen voters rejecting the political. The Pirate Party may sound like a novelty political outfit, but this former ragtag bunch of internet activists may be on the verge of winning Iceland's parliamentary elections Saturday. The party was founded less than four years ago and promises a radical platform. Its members want to legalize drugs, crowd-source their policies using online referendums, and grant citizenship to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The majority of polls over the past 18 months have predicted the party will win the most votes on Saturday — a radical pirate victory in the land of the Vikings. The Pirate Party's three current lawmakers, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Asta Helgadottir and Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson. The Pirate Party "I think it's because we have been approaching politics in a new way," said Pirate Party lawmaker Ásta Helgadóttir, explaining her movement's exponential rise. "We have been trying to do more evidence-based politics rather than just following ideas blindly." Iceland's population of some 320,000 is half the size of Boston's and its landmass would comfortably fit inside the state of Colorado. It is a NATO member but has no armed forces, instead contributing to the alliance with cash and civilian personnel. While politics on this small island of snow and volcanoes may seem insignificant when compared to the boisterous U.S. presidential race, the rise of Iceland's Pirate Party mirrors a global trend that has seen voters rejecting the political mainstream. "We are trying to be the Robin Hood of democracy""The pirates are a radical anti-establishment party," according to Baldur Þórhallsson, a professor of political science at the University of Iceland. "But there are still lots of questions: How will the pirates be in government? Will they be able to function in government?" Iceland's electoral system means it is almost impossible for one party to win an outright victory. Instead, after the election is finished, parties of similar stripes enter into negotiations to try to form a coalition to lead the country. READ MORE
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By Timothy Revell
This weekend, the political landscape in Iceland could be transformed. Polls show a real possibility that the Pirate Party – best known for its anti-establishment views and activism over copyright law and transparency – could come into power. In opinion polls conducted in October, the Pirate Party is tied for first place with the Independence Party (currently in government) and the Left-Green Movement. The pirates and the greens have agreed to form a coalition, and if after Saturday’s election they have a majority – perhaps with the help of some other parties – they will become the government of Iceland. “We don’t know what will happen on election night,” says Björn Leví, a Pirate Party candidate hoping to be elected on Saturday. “It will be very exciting, and it looks like it will be amazing for the Pirate Party.” Iceland’s Pirate Party is led by Birgitta Jónsdóttir. The first Pirate Party was established in Sweden in 2006 with the main intention of reforming copyright law. Political parties acting under the Pirate Party banner now have a presence in many countries. “In Iceland we’ve expanded the Pirate Platform,” says Leví. “We’re not just about copyright and privacy, we’re about transparency and direct democracy as well.” Sailing to high seatsIn the 2013 Icelandic general election, the Pirate Party managed to just get past the 5 per cent voting threshold to gain its first three seats in parliament. In 2016, it could do much better. The party is currently at around 22 per cent in the polls, a vote share that would give it a real chance of forming a government with other left-leaning parties. Most pirate parties have struggled to appeal to more than a niche audience, but proposals for more personal privacy, greater government transparency and less corruption seem to be chiming with voters in Iceland. “We’re still that group of nerdy tech enthusiasts,” says Leví. “But we’re unique in the political landscape with the issues we are discussing.” Earlier this year, the Icelandic prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson was caught up in the Panama Papers leak when his family was linked with undeclared offshore investments. More than 10,000 Icelanders protested outside parliament, calling for a snap election. Directly after the protest, the Pirate Party was hitting its best ever polling figures. “Everyone is talking about transparency in Iceland. Things like privacy and copyright are a harder sell,” says Leví. Other ideas suggested by the Party include making bitcoin legal tender and giving US whistle-blower Edward Snowden citizenship. Iceland's radical Pirate Party, run by a former WikiLeaks worker who wants to be a political "Robin Hood," could lead the Nordic nation's next government after Saturday's election.
The Pirate Party, started four years ago, is part of a wave of populist groups gaining ground in Europe, from Austria to Italy, amid discontent with political scandals and a stalled economic recovery. Iceland's economy collapsed after the 2008 financial crisis, and in April the prime minister resigned after being named in the Panama Papers scandal. "We stand for enacting changes that have to do with reforming the systems, rather than changing minor things that might easily be changed back," said Birgitta Jónsdóttir, 49, the party's leader and self-described "poetician." "We do not define ourselves as left or right but rather as a party that focuses on the systems. In other words, we consider ourselves hackers." Formed in 2012 to lobby for Internet copyright reform, the Pirate Party has broadened its platform to include advocating for direct democracy, total government transparency, decriminalizing drugs and even offering asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. The party's headquarters in the capital Reykjavík is in a building appropriately called Tortuga — a reference to the former Caribbean pirate stronghold off the coast of Haiti. The group's official logo is a black Viking sail. "We want to be the Robin Hood of power: We want to take away the power from the powerful and give it to the general public of Iceland," Jónsdóttir said. A poll this week by research firm MMR had the ruling center-right Independence Party with a slight lead over the Pirate Party. But an Oct. 19 poll by the University of Iceland put the Pirate Party marginally ahead of the Independence Party, which has been the dominant political force in Iceland for decades. The Independence Party lost support in part after the Panama Papers showed that Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and his wife secretly owned an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands for their investments. He then stepped down from his post. Kim Hjelmgaard , USA TODAY While Donald Trump may be trailing in the polls heading into next month’s presidential election, a group of very different political mavericks could well sweep into power in Iceland on Saturday. The Pirate Party, which started just four years ago with a call to end perceived political corruption in the wake of the 2008 economic crash, is battling for the lead in the polls and has a strong chance of forming a government after Iceland’s parliamentary elections.
Why are the elections being held now? The popularity of the Pirate Party has been boosted by the 2008 economic crash, which ruined the Icelandic economy and led to a controversial $4.6 billion bank bailout, as well as by the release of the Panama Papers earlier this year. In the leaked documents, Iceland’s then Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and his wife Anna Sigurlaug Pálsdóttir were found to have set up an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands, an international tax haven. While not illegal, it caused huge demonstrations in capital Reykjavik and forced Gunnlaugsson’s resignation in April. The center-right ruling coalition replaced him with Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, a fellow member of the Progressive Party, but also called early elections. And now Iceland’s established parties could pay a large price for the scandals Who is the Pirate Party? The party’s leader Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a 49-year old who describes herself a “poetician,” is a former collaborator with WikiLeaks. Jónsdóttir, who insists she has no ambition to be prime minister, has said she wants to be the “Robin Hood of power” and is in favor of direct democracy, full government transparency, decriminalizing drugs,as well as offering asylum to whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden. "To be a Pirate means to allow for the 21st century to enter the legal framework all citizens depend on,” Oktavía Jónsdóttir, who is running for the second seat of the South Constituency, told International Business Times earlier this week. “Our electoral success means the Icelandic people want change and trust the Pirates to lead by ethical example without corruption." Which other parties are involved? The current coalition of the Progressive Party and the Independence Party has dominated Icelandic politics for much of the country’s independent history. In the last parliamentary elections in 2013, the Independence Party received the most votes, with 26 percent, while the Progressive Party garnered 24 percent, taking 19 seats each in the country’s 63-member parliament. Latest opinion polls show the Pirate Party vying for the lead with the Independence Party. But there will be far more than just those three parties competing for votes. There is also the Left-Green Party, the centrist Bright Future and the center-left Social Democratic Alliance. The opposition parties in Iceland met this morning to discuss an anti-government grand alliance if votes are favourable following the elections. They have a sent a joint declaration of intent to the press.
The discussions were the brainchild of The Pirate Party who held a press conference ten days ago to state that they would not be going into coalition with either of the current two governing parties, the centre-right Independence Party (‘Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn’) and the centrist Progressive Party (‘Framsóknarflokkurinn’). Instead, the Pirates sent a letter to a leaders of the three other opposition parties currently with MPs in the Icelandic Parliament (‘Alþingi’) and to the brand-new Regeneration (‘Viðreisn’) party, inviting them to pre-election coalition talks. Iceland's Pirates gun for anti-government grand alliance Today's press statement says that "We believe a coaliton between these parties offers a clear choice to the current governing parties, a choice that we believe will create new opportunites for Icelandic society." This is an unprecedented step as Icelandic parties have generally stood for elections alone without committing to any other party, with coalition talks taking place only once the results are in The party that could be on the cusp of winning Iceland’s national elections on Saturday didn’t exist four years ago.
Its members are a collection of anarchists, hackers, libertarians and web geeks. It sets policy through online polls – and thinks the government should do the same. It wants to make Iceland “a Switzerland of bits,” free of digital snooping. It has offered Edward Snowden a new place to call home. And then there’s the name: in this land of Vikings, the Pirate Party may soon be king. The rise of the Pirates – from radical fringe to focal point of Icelandic politics – has astonished even the party’s founder, a poet, web programmer and former WikiLeaks activist. “No way,” said 49-year-old Birgitta Jónsdóttir when asked whether she could have envisioned her party governing the country so soon after its launch. But this, after all, is 2016. And to a string of electoral impossibilities that suddenly became reality – including Britain voting for Brexit and Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination – the world may soon add a Pirate Party-led government in Europe. Victory for the Pirates may not mean much in isolation. This exceptionally scenic, lava-strewn rock just beyond the Arctic Circle has a population less than half that of Washington, DC, with no army and an economy rooted in tourism and fishing. But a Pirate Party win would offer a vivid illustration of how far Europeans are willing to go in their rejection of the political mainstream, adding to a string of insurgent triumphs emanating from both the far left and far right. To Jónsdóttir and other Pirate true believers – who define their party as neither left nor right, but a radical movement that combines the best of both – the election here could also be the start of the reboot that Western democracy so desperately needs. “People want real changes and they understand that we have to change the systems, we have to modernise how we make laws,” said Jónsdóttir, whose jet-black hair and matching nail polish cut a distinctive profile in a country where politics has long been dominated by paunchy blond men. The sticker affixed to the back of her chrome-finish laptop stands out, too: an imitation seal of the US government, the familiar arrow-bearing eagle encircled by the words “National Security Agency Monitored Device.” At the Pirates’ tech-start-up-esque office in an industrial area of Reykjavik’s seafront, a Guy Fawkes mask hangs from the wall and a skull-and-crossbones flag peeks out from a ceramic vase. Iceland is, in some ways, a strange place for such a rogue movement to flourish. The country is one of earth’s most equitable, most peaceful and most prosperous. Home to the world’s oldest parliament – it traces its origins back to a gathering of Norse settlers in AD930 – this remote island nation that can feel more like a small, genteel town is not known for political turbulence. But Iceland has been afflicted by the same anti-establishment fervour that has swept the rest of the Western world in recent years. In many ways, the alienation from politics has been even more acute here. The 2008 global financial crisis brought the once highflying economy to ruin, saved only by a $4.6bn international bailout. Bankers went to jail, and a street protest movement was born. The populist spirit was revved up once again this past spring when the leak of the Panama Papers revealed an offshore company owned by the prime minister’s wife that staked a claim to Iceland’s collapsed banks. The perceived conflict of interest brought thousands of protesters to the streets, a crowd that, as a share of the overall population, was equal to as many as 21 million people in the United States. With protests building, the prime minister quit and new elections were called. But the public’s cynicism about a political system long steered by an insider clique only deepened. “The distrust that had long been germinating has now exploded. The Pirates are riding on that wave,” said Ragnheithur Kristjánsdóttir, a political history professor at the University of Iceland. “We’ve had new parties before, and then they’ve faded. What’s surprising is that they’re maintaining their momentum.” The Pirates, part of an international movement of the same name, are not the only ones seizing on the country’s discontented political spirit. Several new parties have surged and could well set Iceland’s direction for the next four years. Meanwhile, parties that have traded power in Iceland for decades are bumping along in polls at historic lows. Outsiders may regard the idea of a government run by Pirates as a joke. But “the voters think a joke is better than what we have now,” said Benedikt Jóhannesson, leader of another insurgent party that is even younger than the Pirates and has also earned substantial support. Jóhannesson hastens to add that he doesn’t see the Pirates as a joke. His buttoned-down party is made up of technocrats, academics and business executives, a far cry from the punk-rock, hacker spirit of the Pirates. But the two may be in coalition talks after the election if, as expected, no party comes anywhere near the majority needed to govern. He may not agree with the Pirates on many issues, he said, but at least they share a belief in the need for fundamental change. “Some of our parties have been around for 100 years,” said Jóhannesson, fresh off a 10-hour drive back from a campaign swing through the remote Icelandic countryside. “But the systems that worked in, say, the 1960s don’t necessarily work for the 2010s.” Not everyone is so gung-ho about calls for radical change. The latest opinion polls show the Pirates jostling for first place with the Independence Party. The center-right party is synonymous with Iceland’s political establishment, having governed the country for much of its modern history. But it was badly tarnished by its stewardship of the bubble economy in the lead-up to the 2008 crash. “People are still angry at us for that,” acknowledged Birgir Ármannsson, an Independence member of parliament. “There’s still a lot of distrust in traditional politics and traditional politicians.” That’s understandable given the scale of Iceland’s economic meltdown, Ármannsson said. But he also said voters should give the current government, of which Independence is a junior partner, credit for Iceland’s economic revival. Now out of the doldrums, the country is back to low unemployment, low inflation and a balanced budget – all of which could be at risk if the Pirates come to power. “You can try experiments,” said the suit-and-tie clad Ármannsson in an interview at the country’s 19th-century stone parliament building. “But if you want economic stability and growth, then you have to vote for us.” Ármannsson questioned what the Pirates actually represent: “They know what they’re against. But it’s difficult to find out what they’re really for.” Indeed, the Pirates have spelled out their positions on issues from fishing quotas to online pornography to Snowden. (Party leaders offered him Icelandic citizenship if he can find a way to get here.) But on some of the biggest questions facing the country, the official party position is to punt to the voters. Whether Iceland should join the European Union, for instance, is a debate that has raged in the country for years. But the Pirates have not taken a stand, insisting instead that the matter should be decided in a national referendum. Some of the party’s signature proposals, meanwhile, are vaguely defined. The Pirates were born in Sweden as a movement to counter digital copyright laws. But the party’s proposal to make Iceland “a digital safe haven,” much like Switzerland is for banking, is hazy on the details. To party devotees, that’s fine. The Pirates, they say, are less about any specific ideology than they are about a belief that the West’s creaking political systems can be hacked to give citizens a greater say in their democracy. © The Washington Post REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Birgitta Jónsdóttir is a poet, a Web developer and a former WikiLeaks activist. She’s also founder and leader of Iceland’s Pirate Party, which has been at or near the top of polls ahead of national elections Oct. 29.
[Iceland, a land of Vikings, braces for a Pirate Party takeover] Washington Post London Bureau Chief Griff Witte sat down with Jónsdóttir for an interview at her office in Reykjavik on Oct. 19. The following are excerpts from their conversation. Washington Post: Could you start by telling me what this party stands for, and what are its core beliefs? It's difficult to place on the ideological spectrum of left to right. Birgitta Jónsdóttir: The Pirate Party started in Sweden in 2006, and it only had one agenda: to change draconian copyright laws. But it's changed and shifted primarily because the questions of human rights and cyber have become much more relevant. So if you want to place it somewhere on the spectrum, I would say it's a party that has its roots in civilian rights. But we are not like many left parties that want to regulate citizens and create nanny states. We believe that regulation should be on the powerful, not the individuals. WP: How much of the Pirate Party's success is attributable to the aftermath of the financial crisis? BJ: Many people in Iceland woke up when this big earthquake hit us and we felt that everything we had put our trust in had failed us. Not only the banking sector. The politicians, the academia, the media, the supervisory institutions. So it meant that many people felt that they needed to do something. And we became aware that people could actually change things. It was the people that got the government to resign, the central bank manager to resign, and the financial supervisory board director to resign. So that was a huge wake-up call. WP: If you are the top vote-getter, and if you do lead the creation of the next government, what should be done about the E.U. membership application? BJ: Trust the nation. WP: Hold a referendum? BJ: Yeah, but it's very important that if you do a referendum like this, we don't want to make the same mistakes that happened in Britain. You have to make sure that it is an informed campaign. People need to know what [membership] implies. WP: You have said that Edward Snowden could have asylum in Iceland if he so desired. Is that something you see could happening if you win the election? BJ: I have informed him and his lawyer that he should apply for citizenship, because there's more protections against extradition for Icelandic citizens than there is if you are here with asylum. It is our policy, as a party, to grant him citizenship if he would apply for it. WP: Will he be applying? BJ: We will see. It would probably be symbolic unless you get the U.S. government to agree that it would be better for them to have him in a neutral country that doesn't have secret service and is not in a Cold War with them, or a new cyberwar. He has inspired changes and awareness, which is very important in this day and age, and sometimes egos need to be set aside, even with powerful people, and we need to look at the full picture. WP: You obviously see yourselves as the opposite of Trumpism and Le-Penism and Farage-ism and all of these right-wing populist movements. But there has also been a real left-wing populism, whether with Syriza in Greece or Podemos in Spain or Corbyn in Britain. Do you see any kinship with those movements? BJ: I do see some kinship, and also with the Five Star Movement, leaning to the right in Italy. And I have worked with people from all these different groups. In a sense the Pirate Party is very similar to what happened for the Bernie Sanders campaign, where people felt inspired and they felt like they were having an impact, a big grass-roots-inspired movement, in particular with young people. The reason why I am spending time, just a few days before the election, speaking to the foreign press is that I feel it is important to point out that individuals can make a difference, that things that seem impossible one day might suddenly shift into a possibility the next day. WP: Did you believe when you got started with the Pirate Party that you would be in a position to govern some day? BJ: Well, not three years after we formed, no way. WP: But now you are potentially topping the polls. What kind of statement would that make if the Pirate Party does finish at the top? BJ: People want real changes, and they understand that we have to change the system. We have to modernize how we make laws. We have to make sure whenever you are dealing with big things like global warming, world security, refugees, the E.U. question, access to information, it needs to be done with an awareness that all of these things interconnect. We don't care where the policies come from, we don't care if they come from the governmental party or the opposition or from ourselves. We want to inspire others to be with us, but we want to support good stuff no matter where it comes from. Maybe [Iceland] could be sort of a testing ground for solutions because we are few and because we are really a tech-oriented nation. Everybody is a gadget freak. We spend a lot of time indoors. Karla Adam contributed to this report from London.
Klaus Spoeri, a fund manager at Frankfurt-Trust, says that while he recently bought more Icelandic bonds because of their attractive yields of more than 5 percent, he’s now holding off. "We’re quite confident about Iceland and the turnaround," Spoeri said. But if Saturday’s elections should "go wrong, we’ll liquidate the position." READ MORE Iceland goes to the polls on Saturday, October 29, six months earlier than normally envisaged. The right-wing Independence Party and The Pirates protest movement are fighting neck-on-neck for the first place.
Disillusionment and protest“The Pirates” lead the polls with small intervals since last April, when Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson of the Progressive Party was embroiled in the Panama Papers scandal; he has subsequently resigned following mass demonstrations. That was not the first failure of the Icelandic political system. From the economic crisis of 2008 (Kreppa) to the failure of the left Social Democratic government in 2009 to meet “revolutionary” expectations, there is an increasing sense of political disillusionment. In 2013, a nationalist alliance came to power, which was in turn discredited by the Panama Papers scandal. Pirates could still winTwo polls published last week – 21 October and 18 October – suggest that the ruling right-wing Progressive Party cannot hope for more than 9% of the vote, while its coalition Independence Party partner holds its ground with 21-23% of the vote. The combined maximum of 33% is a far cry from the 51,1% they mastered in the 2013 general elections. Polls suggest that Iceland’s Pirate Party is second in the polls with approximately 21-22,5% of the vote, a leap from 5% in 2013. Still, these are not the highest polling numbers The Pirates have seen. Between April and March, The Pirates were the party of choice for up to 40% of the electorate. The emerging third force is the Left Green Party, led by former Minister of Education Katrín Jakobsdóttir. They are looking at approximately 19%. The Social Democratic Alliance has seen its support tumble to 6,5%. And the pro-EU Bright Future party is also in the single digits with 6-to-7,4%. The PiratesThe Pirates remain a protest movement, with a platform of social and economic libertarianism. But, they made strands since 2013, when they gained 5%. They are running a crowdfunded campaign, have a direct democracy political platform, and make the usual pledges to water down copy-right rules, decriminalize drugs, turn the bitcoin into a legal tender, lower the voting age, and offer Snowden asylum. Their leader is Birgitta Jonsdottir, a teacher, a published poet, and former Wikileaks spokesperson. They are not looking for the office of the Prime Minister and will not be seeking to transform the financial system. They want the Presidency of the Parliament and a constituent assembly to review Iceland’s Constitution. Vulture Funds Elections are taking place under the shadow of an expected standoff with vulture funds. The government has suspended the service of €1,3bn in government bonds owned by Autonomy Capital, Eaton Vance, Loomis Sayles, and Discovery Capital Management. Iceland did make an offer for a voluntary restructuring in June, but the vulture funds are holding out demanding more. Two of the funds are already taking their care to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Brussels. The newly elected government will have to make a choice of whether to pay or not to pay. A new poll says the radical fringe party is leading with 22.6%Iceland’s national elections take place on Saturday, and at present, a radical fringe party could be heading for the win.
One in five Icelanders favor the Pirate Party, according to an online opinion poll run by the Social Science Research Institute at the University of Iceland, the Iceland Monitor reports. The results of the poll put the Pirates in the lead with 22.6%, ahead of the incumbent center-right Independence party by one and a half points. From its beginnings in the radical margins four years ago, to its position at the center point — and counterpoint — of mainstream Icelandic politics today, the rise of Iceland’s Pirate Party has been short and sharp. “It’s a people’s movement,” founder Birgitta Jonsdottir, a web designer and former WikiLeaks activist, told the Washington Post in a video interview. “Ordinary people being able to go into parliament and change laws that were actually give other people more power. It’s a message of hope.” Iceland’s Pirate Party is part of a global political movement that first began in Sweden in 2006 to bring about digital-copyright reform. According to the Post, the party’s political leanings are neither right nor left and policy is vague, focusing on direct democracy, civil rights, transparency and public access to information. In 2013, three members of Iceland’s Pirate Party were elected to parliament — making Iceland the only country in the world to have members of the Pirate movement in government. “The Pirates are promising people a new kind of politics,” Professor Ragnheidur Kristjansdottir of the University of Iceland told the Post. “Less corrupt politics where people can participate in a more direct way.” The rally in Icelandic markets is stalling as one of Europe’s fastest growing economies faces the possibility of a regime change next week. With latest surveys suggesting the center-right coalition stands little chance of surviving the Oct. 29 election, opposition parties have started exploring possible alliances designed to bring about far-reaching change, from a new constitution to higher levies on fishing rights. Local investors say a potential left-wing government that includes the maverick Pirate Party, which is leading in some polls, will mean higher taxes to fund a spending spree. "When you look at the election pledges of the left-leaning parties, you can see that they are planning to raise taxes and more Treasury spending," Sveinn Thorarinsson, equity analyst with Landsbankinn hf, said in a telephone interview. "It’s no secret that those plans aren’t exactly music to the ears of business owners and investors." Despite strong fundamentals -- Iceland’s economy surged 4.1 percent in the first six months of the year -- bond yields and credit default swaps have edged up over the past two months. The GAMMA government bond index has dipped 1 percent from its early September high and the country’s main stock index has slid almost 9 percent from a high in April. "Investors are a little stressed out about the possibility of a left-leaning government," Johann Gisli Johannesson, a fund manager at Reykjavik-based asset manager Gamma Capital Management hf, said in a telephone interview. Although it turned a 14.3 billion kronur ($125 million) deficit into a projected 408 billion kronur surplus while in office, the incumbent government -- backed by the Progressive Party and the Independence Party -- is struggling in the polls. One survey published a week before polling stations open put support for the ruling alliance at a combined 30.2 percent, down from 51.1 percent in the 2013 election. A regime change could be a rude awakening for investors who have been pouring back into Iceland as the government dismantled many of the capital controls that were implemented after the nation’s banking system collapsed, in 2008. Even as the government put in place rules to limit the so-called carry trade and the central bank cut interest rates, the krona is up 11 percent this year and hit an eight-year low against the euro this week. Next week’s snap election was called after former premier Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was forced to resign following revelations in the Panama Papers that he and his wife held investments in offshore accounts. According to Johannesson, the biggest impact of an alternative ruling coalition possibly extended to the Pirate Party could be on the fishing industry, the country’s third-largest. There are signs that may be already happening. Iceland’s largest fishing company, HB Grandi hf, has seen its stocks tumble almost 15 percent since Iceland’s government announced early elections seven months ago. Despite positive forecasts, the country’s benchmark OMX all-share index has fallen almost 13 percent on an annual basis over the last six months. Analysts, however, note that the wavering fortunes of Icelandair have played a major role in the OMX drop. Although fears about a left-leaning government may be an "oversimplification," Thorarinsson predicts that market "jitters will continue until election day." "At the moment, most investors seem to be waiting for this campaign to finish," Thorarinsson said. Iceland’s Pirate Party may be about to make history as the world’s first ‘pirate’ movement to win national general elections. A new opinion poll conducted by the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland for Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið indicates that over one in five voters will be voting Pirate a week tomorrow. MORE: Politics in Iceland: A beginner’s guide The data is from 14-19 October and puts the Pirate Party in first place with 22.6%, a point and a half ahead of the centre-right Independence Party (currently in power). These figures would give each party fifteen MPs in Iceland’s 63-seat national parliament (‘Alþingi’). With eight days to go before polling, can the ruling Independence Party erode the Pirates' lead? Photo: Iceland Monitor/Árni Sæberg The top two parties have already either implicitly or explicitly ruled out working together in a coalition. MORE: Is Iceland heading for post-election deadlock? MORE: Iceland’s Pirates: A generational thing? Iceland’s Pirate Party already made history back in 2013 when they received 5.1% of the vote and returned three MPs – Iceland is currently the only country in the world where the Pirate movement has elected MPs sitting in a national legislature. Next week’s election look set to blow even this impressive record out of the water, with the Pirates’ potentially winning outright, increasing their number of MPs five-fold, and commanding a strong mandate to form a government.Could one of these be Iceland's next Prime Minister? Leader of the Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson (left) and Pirate Party MP, Birgitta Jónsdóttir (right). Photos: Árni Sæberg Two parties have for many months been vying for supremacy as Iceland’s most popular political party – the centre-right Independence Party and the open-democracy Pirate Party. The very latest opinion poll puts them just three points apart nationally, with the lead changing lands with some regularity. But new data gathered by Gallup and reported on by Icelandic national broadcasterRÚV (link in Icelandic) suggest that a generation gap has opened up in the support base of the two parties. MORE: Leader of Iceland’s right not keen on coalition with Pirates Based on an opinion poll conducted 3-12 October and the ages of the respondents, it emerges that the Pirate Party comes top among voters under the age of forty, while the Independence Party is the preferred choice among voters over forty: Across all categories of voters aged forty and above, the Independence Party (one of the two current governing parties) comes out on top, while the Pirates are in first place among young voters of all ages. MORE: Iceland’s Pirates gun for anti-government grand alliance The 60+ category is the most fervently pro-Independence Party age group, with over 30% intending to vote for them – some seventeen points above the Pirates. Conversely, voters aged 30-39 are twice as likely to vote for the Pirates than for the Independence party, 26%:13%. Having surged in the polls by riding the anti-establishment wave, Iceland’s Pirate Party is now preparing to commandeer the government.
The direct democracy movement has dispatched emissaries to explore possible alliances with the country’s more traditional opposition parties ahead of parliamentary elections. With surveys suggesting the ruling conservative coalition will find it hard to retain a majority, the prospect of a radically new political landscape emerging from the Oct. 29 vote can’t be dismissed. "We want to work with parties that are willing to take on the systemic changes we think are important," Smari McCarthy, a spokesman for the Pirate Party, said in an interview in Reykjavik last week. Whether it’s promoting transparency through a new constitution, pushing for a referendum to shape the country’s relationship with the EU or deciding how to redistribute the profits from the island’s vast natural resources, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Iceland’s election campaign also suggests economic success is no guarantee of electoral success. The two parties that form the government are struggling despite a booming economy fueled by record tourism arrivals and a major improvement in the reputationof the country’s financial sector. The rise of Icelandic populism finds its roots in the financial crisis of 2008, when its three main bank collapsed under a mountain of debt, ushering in an era of capital controls. But it has accelerated following revelations in the Panama Papers that the country’s former premier, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, held investments in offshore accounts along with his wife. Gunnlaugsson was forced to resign, becoming the most high profile political casualty of the leak and forcing the government to call a snap election six months ahead of schedule. His Progressive Party is now polling at less than 9 percent, down from 24.4 percent in the latest election. Icelandic voters that had already grown tired of the established order have since pledged support to groups like the Pirates, much like similar resentment toward the status quo has spurred the rise of Donald Trump in the U.S., the left-wing Podemos in Spain or the Five Star Movement of Italian comedian Beppe Grillo. Once considered fringe material, Pirate policies such as the decriminalization of drugs are now being taken seriously by other opposition parties, particularly on the left of the political divide. "We’ve been able to unite behind many different things" while working together in opposition, said Sigridur Ingibjorg Ingadottir, an economist and leading candidate for the Social Democratic Alliance. "My dream government would consist of the current opposition parties," she said, hinting at a possible post-election deal with the Pirates. Uncertain OutcomeThe Left Greens, who are polling at about 19 percent -- just under the Pirates’ 20.7 percent backing -- are also open to a deal. We’ll cooperate with any party that’s prepared to "work toward social equality and justice in our society, as well as toward environmental and climate protection," said Svandis Svavarsdottir, the party’s parliamentary whip. Both the Pirates and the Greens fiercely oppose the conservative Independence Party, which has been ruling the country with the Progressive Party since the 2013 election. Two other opposition parties that back changes to Iceland’s constitution and are sympathetic to the Pirates’ calls for an EU referendum are Bright Future and Revival. The north Atlantic nation applied for membership back in 2009, but the outgoing government scrapped the bid, leaving Iceland as a member of the European Economic Area. Voters rooting for a Pirate government are also being promised more free health care, a crackdown on corruption and more taxes for multinationals like Rio Tinto and Alcoa. According to Eirikur Bergmann, a political science professor at Bifrost University, the rise of the Pirates and the emergence of new parties such as Revival, an offshoot of the Independence Party, make predicting the election’s outcome a daunting task. "Although the economy has recovered well since 2008," Bergmann said, "there’s still a lot of disbelief in politicians in Iceland, which makes it harder to say how things will turn out." Reykjavík, Iceland--Though she’s grown out the blue-dyed coiffure, Birgitta Jónsdóttir still brightens up the anodyne halls of the Althing, Iceland’s parliament in Reykjavík, the country’s capital. In stockinged feet, a white-cotton hippie skirt, and a dark-blue embroidered waistcoat, the 49-year-old Jónsdóttir refuses to fit the classic mold of politician, even though she’s occupied a parliamentary seat for seven years, since 2012 as the front person of the Pirate Party. Jónsdóttir, the former WikiLeaks spokesperson and a published lyricist, calls herself a “poetician,” since verse is her true calling, she says, not the daily grind of politics. Yet if Iceland’s national elections were held today and not on October 29, the Pirates could head up a new government on this rugged island of 330,000 souls—possibly with Jónsdóttir as prime minister.
Iceland’s political status quo—a 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. This year, Iceland was rocked again when the Panama Papers leak exposed corruption among top politicos, including the prime minister, who resigned under fire. “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, and with them Birgitta carries authority. She’s been the face of the opposition since the crash.” Although the Pirates began surging in polls more than a year ago, peaking at 43 percent in April, Jónsdóttir has been coy about whether she’d take the country’s highest post if elections go in the party’s favor and supporters insist on her as prime minister. (Iceland’s Pirates have slipped considerably in surveys since early this year; currently, they’re neck and neck with the ruling Independence Party.) The object of her desire, she says, is the Althing’s presidency, an office from which she could reinvest power in the legislature—one means of bringing politics nearer to the people, a cause close to Pirate hearts. “We’re fighting for fundamental democratic change,” Jónsdóttir says in her office in the Althing, its walls decorated with a “Free Bradley Manning” poster (Chelsea’s hair added in magic marker), a picture of the Dalai Lama, and an oversize black flag bearing the skull and crossbones. The top shelf has a hand-held red megaphone. If she can’t spearhead meaningful structural reform in the upcoming term, she’ll step back from politics. “I won’t be here in four years,” says Jónsdóttir, who insists she won’t stand by to watch the Pirates devolve into just another hack party in a dysfunctional system. Iceland’s Pirates, though they currently hold only three spots in the 64-seat parliament, are among the highest-profile of Europe’s Pirate parties. The anarchic hacker-led movement, global in scope, focuses on privacy rights and freedom of expression in the digital age. Born a decade ago in Sweden, and since turbo-charged by WikiLeaks’ and Edward Snowden’s disclosures about NSA surveillance, the Pirates have dozens of chapters worldwide, from Australia to Canada, and a headquarters in Geneva. Iceland’s Pirates were the first in the world voted into a national legislature. Indeed, Jónsdóttir and Iceland’s Pirates see themselves as part of something greater than the direct-democracy uprising they’re leading in the chill North Atlantic. They understand Iceland as the “test grounds for radical progressive changes,” and they stand for an international legalization of WikiLeaks, asylum for Edward Snowden, and legalizing drugs across Europe. They say they’ll turn diminutive Iceland (a country so small its citizens are listed in the phone book by first names) into an international digital safe haven where data, such as whistle-blower revelations, can be securely transmitted and stored. The forms of grassroots democracy they’ve been experimenting with—participatory budgeting at the municipal level and crowd-sourced legislation, among others—feed into an international network of lateral-thinking local governments and movements from below that employ the Internet to bridge the gap between the grassroots and the halls of power. The broad-scope platform of Iceland’s Pirates, which also includes a basic-income guarantee and radical action on climate change, has kept it from the fate of other, more narrowly conceived Pirate parties in Europe, like Germany’s, which has withered since it burst onto the stage in 2007 with demands for Net neutrality and data-retention limits. Yet, though often compared to Greece’s Syriza and Spain’s Podemos, the Pirates aren’t classic leftists, and they wave off labels. “We do not want the nanny state that is often the traditional leftist perspective in Scandinavia,” Jónsdóttir has said. “But we want to empower people.” Labeled or not, they’re also for jacking up taxes on the wealthy and have siphoned off swaths of voters from Iceland’s Left-Green Movement and Social Democrats. “We’re fighting for fundamental democratic change.” —Birgitta Jónsdóttir The centerpiece of the Pirates’ election campaign is the promulgation of a new constitution. A crowd-sourced draft, conceived by about 1,000 randomly chosen citizens and a much smaller legal committee that wrote it, was formulated in the wake of the economic crisis. The draft included stipulations to renationalize natural-resource-based industries and institute mechanisms for civic governance. In 2012, 66 percent of Iceland’s voters approved the draft in a nonbinding referendum. The current Constitution, originally promulgated in the 19th century, when Iceland languished under Danish rule (the term “monarch” was simply replaced by “president”), is a woeful anachronism, Jónsdóttir insists. The laws of the land, though not exclusively responsible for the 2008 crash or Iceland’s corruption, enabled the executive overreach and cronyism that made it possible. The public has no say in its processes except for elections, and there’s a strong executive with too little oversight. The draft constitution’s frontal attack on the elite’s power, she says, is why it remains stonewalled in the Althing. (Other observers, including Icelandic scholars as well as the Council of Europe, say that legal irregularities and structural weaknesses make the draft constitution unacceptable.) Iceland’s tumultuous politics, and the pirates’ unlikely popularity, are the fallout of autumn 2008 and its aftershocks. A decade ago, Iceland’s economic miracle was sold as a laissez-faire fairy tale. From the late 1990s through the ’00s, Iceland rode high with newfound wealth created by the neoliberal policies that its champions proudly hailed as the legacy of Reagan and Thatcher. In Iceland, though, it wasn’t mortgages that fueled the virtual boom, sending investors and lay people alike scurrying to borrow and buy, but rather fish. (So central to Iceland’s economy are the fisheries that when an Icelander catches a whiff from a fish-processing plant, he or she smiles approvingly and says, “Ah, the smell of money.”) The privatization of the fisheries in the 1990s created billions in fish stock that were invested and used as collateral to borrow abroad and spend wildly as traditionally poor Iceland never had before. In 2008, before the economy’s implosion, Icelanders were spending 213 percent of their household income a year. During the binge, Iceland’s politicos slashed taxes, cut banking regulations, and, along with the fisheries, privatized telecommunications, energy, and banks. From 2002 to ’08, Iceland’s stock market soared by 900 percent. The bold, risk-taking alpha-investors were referred to as Iceland’s “business Vikings,” national heroes who had finally discovered a way for Icelanders to get rich by doing nothing, rather than trolling the high seas or herding sheep. And then, like a house of cards, it all came crashing down when the foreign bonds came due. Iceland’s national debt breached $175,000 a head, a financial train wreck of epic proportions, and overnight the country found itself caught in the vortex. Its currency, the krona, plunged on world markets as speculators bet against it. The economy nose-dived, Iceland’s three biggest banks collapsed, and the country’s billions in virtual wealth were wiped off ledgers. The debt, though, wasn’t. Unemployment tripled, thousands of businesses failed, and young Icelanders fled abroad. In contrast to Europe and the United States, however, Iceland refused to rescue the banks with taxpayer money; instead, the failed banks were renationalized. Iceland chose instead to protect its citizens, first by imposing capital controls so that money couldn’t leave the country and, second, by expanding the social safety net. “Iceland did the right thing…creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” said economist and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz in 2011. The bankers were eventually sent to jail: 26 financiers received sentences totaling 74 years. * * * The government’s initial refusal to resign triggered the so-called Pots and Pans Revolution, as a quarter of the population took to the streets night after night for a week, loudly banging on the kitchen hardware of their stressed household economies. Jónsdóttir was at its forefront, as co-founder of a new group called Citizens’ Movement. After the government’s resignation, new elections resulted in a Left-Green/Social Democrat coalition, the first ever in Icelandic history. (The new prime minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, became the world’s only openly gay female head of state.) Jónsdóttir entered the Althing as the sole representative of the people’s movement. Among the new leadership’s first moves, in addition to banning strip clubs in feminist-minded Iceland, was to initiate a participatory process to formulate a modern constitution, a key demand of the protesters. At the time, with her blue hair, Jónsdóttir was likened to the older sister of Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s cyberpunk heroine Lisbeth Salander. (These days, the rangy woman with an unruly mop of brown hair and ice-blue eyes more resembles a Waldorf school teacher.) And her CV looked nothing like that of a typical Icelandic politician. Jónsdóttir was born in 1967; her mother was an Icelandic folk singer, her stepfather a fisherman. As a child, she worked in her village’s fisheries—until she discovered punk rock, anarchism, and psychedelic drugs. At 22, she published her first book of poetry. Jónsdóttir traveled the world, including a stint in Philadelphia, where she worked as a door-to-door saleswoman of vacuum cleaners. Then, back in Iceland, the single mother of three (each with a different father) dived into the Internet, teaching herself software development. Unlike Europe and the United States, Iceland refused to rescue its crooked banks with taxpayer money. In 2010, Jónsdóttir, by then an MP and digital activist, was among the inner circle of volunteers in Iceland (where WikiLeaks had been founded in 2006, though without Jónsdóttir’s participation) who helped Julian Assange assemble the secret footage of a bloody 2007 US helicopter attack on Iraqi citizens in Baghdad, the primary source of which had been US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. The product was the “Collateral Murder” video, which put WikiLeaks and Assange on the global map and made Jónsdóttir a valued member of the international WikiLeaks team. (In the 2013 thriller The Fifth Estate, Jónsdóttir is played by Dutch actress Carice van Houten, whom we now know as Melisandre in Game of Thrones.) Since then, she’s toured the United States and beyond to speak about the video, the jailed Manning’s plight, and international free-speech laws. In 2011, the US government served a subpoena demanding personal data from her Twitter feed, which she has fought in US courts. Iceland’s first and probably last ever red-green government lasted exactly one term before voters chased it out of office in 2013. Like other debt-stricken European nations, Iceland was compelled to implement an austerity program designed by the International Monetary Fund while in deep recession, sharply reducing many social expenditures and raising taxes. Even though their bite never lived up to their bark, the leftists hardly deserved the drubbing they got, and even less so their replacement by the conservatives, who had set the country up to belly-flop a mere five years earlier. But the painful austerity measures condemned the leftists to suffer their countrymen’s ire. Soon thereafter, Icelanders soured on the conservatives again, even though the economy was experiencing a remarkable upswing, which had begun to kick in during the latter years of the red-green coalition. Although today there’s still outstanding debt and the economy’s performance falls well short of its highs 10 years ago, by 2015 joblessness was down to 4 percent, with growth ticking up at the same rate. The recovery had two pillars. One was Iceland’s traditional mainstay, fish exports. A new cash cow, however, namely tourism, baffled no one more than Icelanders. The April 2010 volcanic eruptions at Eyjafjallajökull, which left Europe in a blanket of fine gray ash, set off a tourism bonanza that continues to this day. “From one day to the next, our stands at tourism fairs were mobbed,” says Halldóra Mogensen, who works in the tourism branch. Tourism doubled in volume, surpassing 1.3 million people in 2015—four times Iceland’s population. Judging by the boutiques in downtown Reykjavík and the astronomical prices of everything (a plain pizza in an unspectacular restaurant goes for $32), it’s a distinctly high-end tourism tsunami that has flooded the country. Whether it’s a visit to the Blue Lagoon (the open-air turquoise geothermal pool outside of Reykjavík), whale watching, or volcano tours, the lines are longer every year. (And don’t even try getting into Kaffibarinn—the bar made famous in Baltasar Kormákur’s cult comedy 101 Reykjavík--on the weekend.) But Iceland’s feel-good recovery hit a speed bump that threw the island nation into turmoil once more. In April, the Panama Papers exposed thousands of people with offshore businesses being used as tax havens or to conceal other types of fraud. The politicians implicated included Iceland’s prime minister, Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, who had campaigned on promises to clean up the banking system. Although his millions in foreign holdings broke none of the country’s laws, the hypocrisy infuriated a nation still smarting from the economic collapse. Initially, Gunnlaugsson refused to step down—until Icelanders piled into Austurvöllur Square behind the Althing once again. He finally resigned on April 5, his successor bowing to the pressure to call new elections. * * * Although much of Jónsdóttir’s and the Pirates’ popular esteem hinges on their antiestablishment cred, the party and its civil-society allies have some real achievements to their credit, the likes of which few of their global Pirate counterparts can claim. For example, at the Pirates’ prodding, Iceland repealed its blasphemy laws in the wake the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in France—a victory for free-speech advocates. And the party’s call to offer asylum to Edward Snowden has found sympathetic ears, even if, as Jónsdóttir believes, Iceland wouldn’t be safe for him. With its geothermal resources, strong winds, and plentiful rivers, Iceland could be a world leader in sustainable development, the Pirates insist. “Climate change is in our faces, and nobody gives a fuck,” Jónsdóttir says. She argues that Iceland could be fossil-fuel-free in the near future, if it only set its mind to it. The question that the October elections may answer is whether the Pirates are simply a flash in the pan, nothing more than a protest party. Its comedown in the polls this year has led some observers to believe that when Icelanders enter the voting booth, they’ll back their traditional parties. Iceland’s leftist parties attack the Pirates for being vague and amateurish: For example, they’ve struggled to stock their election slates with acceptable candidates or even to thrash out a common platform. Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, a political scientist close to the Left-Green Movement, notes that there are central issues, like agriculture reform, on which the Pirates have no position at all. “If the Pirates are for putting laws and policies to referenda or crowd-sourcing legislation,” Ómarsdóttir asks, “then what is the elected representatives’ political stand on these issues? What is one voting for when one votes for the Pirates? Who are these people voting online to determine Iceland’s policies?” If Jónsdóttir doesn’t want to be prime minister, others argue, then whom are Icelanders voting for when they cast their ballot for the Pirates? And, given Jónsdóttir’s principled refusal to compromise, how will the Pirates negotiate with potential coalition partners? Moreover, say critics, the average Icelander beyond Reykjavík’s hipster bars worries more about bread-and-butter issues than Internet freedom and Snowden’s fate. “I believe Iceland’s ready for real change,” Jónsdóttir counters. “We’ve mobilized a quarter of Icelanders to be Pirates. That’s pretty cool.” Nor will the Pirates end up like Syriza in Greece, she says. “Syriza just caved in. I’m doing everything to get us ready. We may fail, but we’re not going to compromise like that. We’re not going to take power for the sake of power.” http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2016/10/17/iceland_s_pirates_gun_for_anti_government_grand_all/
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October 2017
CategoriesElection 2016 ResultsInvalid/blank votes 5,574 In brief | Pirate Party
What: A pro-free speech, anti-authoritarian political party in Iceland Formed: 2012 Founders: A group of anarchists, hackers and internet-freedom activists Leader: The party eschews formal leaders but Birgitta Jonsdottir is the most senior of three Pirate lawmakers in Iceland’s parliament Pirate policies “I would like everybody in Iceland to find the pirate within, because the pirate within really represents change and a collective vision for the future.” - Birgitta Jonsdottir, Pirate Party lawmaker |