Pirate Party squeezes into Iceland parliament

The Icelandic Pirate Party has been elected to the country’s parliament, the Althing, after narrowly securing the requisite 5 percent of the vote.

The party’s share was 5.1 percent, meaning that three members – Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, Birgitta Jónsdóttir and Jón Þór Ólafsson – will sit in the 63-seat national parliament.

Among others, policies covering civil rights, privacy and freedom of expression are championed by the party.

According to the website of the Swedish Pirate Party founder, Rick Falkvinge, this is the first time a Pirate Party group has entered a national parliament.

He said: “The Icelanders are something of a phenomenon, even within the quickly-growing Pirate Party movement. The Icelandic Pirates were founded a mere nine months ago... That [the result] is a speed record by any measure.”

Falkvinge noted, however, that the task ahead will not be easy because while “Iceland has been very progressive with its ideas, fewer of those ideas have been implemented in law. Having legislators in Iceland may facilitate that; there’s a lot of work up ahead”.

The centre-right Independence Party and the Centrist Progressive Party formed a coalition following the election.