The Pirate Party ( is, Píratar) is a political party in Iceland. The party's platform is based on

pirate politics Pirate Party is a label adopted by political parties around the world. Pirate parties support civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free s ...

and

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are repres ...

History

The Icelandic Pirate Party was founded on 24 November 2012 by

Birgitta Jónsdóttir Birgitta Jónsdóttir (born 17 April 1967) is an Icelandic politician, anarchist, poet, and activist. She was a Member of the Althing (MP) for the Southwest Constituency from 2013 to 2017, representing the Pirate Party, having been elected at th ...

(previously a member of the Movement) and several Internet activists, including Smári McCarthy. The party successfully applied for the ballot list letter Þ (resembling the party's logo) in order to run in the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

election. In July 2016, the party requested and was issued the letter P for future elections. In their first electoral participation, at the 2013 parliamentary election, the Pirate Party won 5.1% of the votes, just above the 5% threshold required to win representation in the

Althing The Alþingi (''general meeting'' in Icelandic, , anglicised as ' or ') is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is one of the oldest surviving parliaments in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (" thing fields" or "assemb ...

. The three members elected,

, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, and Jón Þór Ólafsson, were the first pirates elected to any national legislature in the world. Following the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting on 7 January 2015, the Pirate Party began a campaign to repeal

Iceland's blasphemy laws A blasphemy law is a law prohibiting blasphemy, which is the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred objects, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable. According to Pew Research Center, ab ...

. The laws, which had been introduced in 1940, were successfully repealed in early July 2015. The repeal, introduced by the Pirate Party, read: "Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of democracy. It is fundamental to a free society that people should be able to express themselves without fear of punishment, whether from the authorities or from other people". During the vote on the repeal, the three Pirate Party members of the Althing stood and declared " Je suis Charlie", in solidarity with the French satirical magazine. For around a year from April 2015 to April 2016, the party consistently topped polling for the next Icelandic parliamentary election in 2016, with support roughly equal to the Independence Party and the Progressive Party combined, who were at the time partners in a coalition government. An MMR opinion poll published in January 2016 put their public support at 37.8%, significantly above that of all other Icelandic political parties. In April 2016, public protests about the Prime Minister's role in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

brought out a significant percentage of the whole population, and may have been among "the largest demonstrations of any kind, in any country, ever (proportionately speaking)". In the wake of the

scandal, polls in April 2016 showed the Pirate Party at 43% and the Independence Party at 21.6%. A poll by the Social Science Research Institute of the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servant ...

with data from 1419 October 2016 put the Pirate Party in first place in the general election on the 29 October 2016 with 22.6% of the vote. The party significantly underperformed in

the election ''The Election'' () is a political drama series produced by Hong Kong Television Network (HKTV). With a budget of HK$15 million, filming started in July 2014 and wrapped up on 28 October 2014. Popularly voted to be the inaugural drama of ...

. While they saw a major increase in vote-share and seats, they finished in third place behind the Independence Party and Left-Greens with 14.5% of the vote; almost a third of what some had polls shown at the beginning of the year. In the 2017 election held a year later, the Pirates fell to sixth place, winning 9.2% of the vote and losing four seats. The Pirates held pat in the 2021 election, winning six seats and remaining in sixth position.

Recent issue stances

European Union

The party has not officially taken a position in favour of or against Iceland's accession to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

. The party has however concluded the following in a party policy on the European Union: * Iceland must never become a member of the European Union unless the membership agreement is put to a referendum after having been presented to the nation in an impartial manner. * Should Iceland join the European Union, the country shall be a single constituency in elections to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

. * Should Iceland join the European Union, Icelandic shall be one of its official languages. * If negotiations on the accession of Iceland to the European Union halt, or membership is rejected by either party, a review of the agreement on the

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade As ...

must be sought, to better ensure Iceland's self-determination. It is unacceptable that Iceland need to take up large part of European legislation through a business agreement without getting representatives or audience. * The conditions of Pirates for Iceland's membership to the European Union are that Iceland be exempt from adopting the

Data Retention Directive The Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC), a directive, later declared invalid by the European Court of Justice, was at first passed on 15 March 2006 and regulated data retention, where data has been generated or processed in connec ...

(2006/24/EC – declared invalid by the

European Court of Justice The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European U ...

in April 2014) and the regulation regarding enforcement of uncontested claims (1869/2005/EC), which would otherwise defy fundamental human rights.

Edward Snowden

On 4 July 2013, a bill was introduced in parliament that would, if passed, immediately grant

Edward Snowden Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American and naturalized Russian former computer intelligence consultant who leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was an employee and su ...

Icelandic citizenship. The proposer of the bill was Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson (Pirate Party) and it was co-sponsored by the other Pirate Party parliament members,

Ögmundur Jónasson Ögmundur Jónasson (born 17 July 1948) is an Icelandic politician who has served as a member of Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament, since 1995. He is currently the Chairman of the Parliament’s Constitutional and Supervisory Committee and i ...

(

Left-Green Movement The Left-Green Movement ( is, Vinstrihreyfingin – grænt framboð), officially the Left Movement – Green Candidature and also known by its short-form name ''Vinstri græn'' (VG), is an eco-socialist political party in Iceland. The Left-Gree ...

), Páll Valur Björnsson ( Bright Future) and Helgi Hjörvar ( Social Democratic Alliance). A vote was taken to determine whether the bill would be put on parliament's agenda but it did not receive enough support.

Electoral results

Parliament

Municipalities

Akureyri Town

Árborg Municipality

The currently elected representative is Álfheiður Eymarsdóttir. ^* Áfram Árborg, joint candidature with Reform Party.

Hafnarfjörður Town

Ísafjörður Town

Kópavogur Town

The currently elected representative is Sigurbjörg Erla Egilsdóttir.

Mosfellsbær Town

^* Joint candidature with Íbúahreyfingin.

Reykjanes Town

Reykjavík City

The currently elected representatives are Dóra Björt Guðjónsdóttir, Alexandra Briem and Magnús Davíð Norðdahl.

Notes

References

External links

* Official website in Icelandic: https://piratar.is * Official website in English: https://piratar.is/english/ * Manifesto for 2016 parliamentary elections in Iceland: http://piratar.is/en/election-manifesto-2016/ * {{Pirate Party 2012 establishments in Iceland

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

Political parties established in 2012 Political parties in Iceland Direct democracy parties