iceland<u+2019>s pirate party makes strong showing in new election posted on oct 30, 2016 




by common dreams staff piratesforiceland.party 




iceland<u+2019>s pirate party has tripled its seats in the 63-seat parliament, saturday night<u+2019>s election results show. 




birgitta jonsdottir, the leader of the pirate party, said she was satisfied with the result. <u+201c>whatever happens, we have created a wave of change in the icelandic society,<u+201d> she told a cheering crowd early sunday morning. 




the pirates won 10 seats, more than tripling its three seats in the last election. the left-green party also won 10 seats saturday. 




the left-leaning parties <u+2014> the left-greens, the pirates and two allies <u+2014> won a total of 27 seats, just short of the 32 required to command a majority in iceland<u+2019>s parliament, the world<u+2019>s oldest. 




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the governing center-right progressive party lost more than half of its seats in the election which was triggered by prime minister sigmundur gunnlaugsson <u+2018>s resignation in april in the wake of the leaked panama papers which revealed the offshore assets of high-profile figures. 




current prime minister sigurdur ingi johannsson said he would resign on sunday. 




the anti-establishment pirate party, which was founded in 2012, had said it could be looking to form a coalition with three left-wing and centrist parties. 




the pirates<u+2019> core issues are: direct democracy, freedom of expression, civil rights, net neutrality, and transparency, all set out in a popular, crowdsourced draft of a new national constitution that the current government has failed to act on. they also seek to re-nationalize the country<u+2019>s natural resource industries, create new rules for civic governance, and issue a passport to edward snowden. after election press conference of @piratepartyis . @birgittaj : "we don't step back from anything that we said before the election." pic.twitter.com/hnf8i3cr6j <u+2014> fabio reinhardt (@enigma424) october 30, 2016 




pirate party founder and mp birgitta jonsdottir said she was <u+201c>very satisfied<u+201d> with the result. 




<u+201c>our internal predictions showed 10 to 15%, so this is at the top of the range. we knew that we would never get 30%,<u+201d> ms jonsdottir told reuters. <u+201c>we want to see trickle-down ethics rather than make-believe trickle-down economics,<u+201d> ms. jonsdottir, 49, who is also a former wikileaks activist, said 




<u+201c>we are a platform for young people, for progressive people who shape and reshape our society,<u+201d> ms. jonsdottir told agence france-presse. <u+201c>like robin hood, because robin hood was a pirate, we want to take the power from the powerful to give it to the people.<u+201d> turnout in iceland was 79.2%! if the us got anywhere near that, this would be a dramatically more progressive country. pic.twitter.com/9ucbbewnz2 <u+2014> john nichols (@nicholsuprising) october 30, 2016 tags:
iceland<u+2019>s pirate party makes strong showing in new election
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