Iceland’s Pirate Party threatens

Pirate partyThe rise of the Pirate Party phenomenon is one of the more curious legacies of the recent world economic problems, and Iceland’s version might well become the most successful. Recent polls suggest that they command support among more than 5 per cent of the electorate, justifying a position in parliament.  Only one other of the ten new parties have managed to break this barrier, the Icelandic Pirate Party gaining 5.6 per cent approval.

Says spokesman, Smári McCarthy, a list candidate from Reykjavik South: “Of course we want to reach as many people as possible, but the main focus is to speak to those who are ready to understand us, and that is how it is with the young people. We are not promising to create a glamorous future for them, but we are offering them a chance to create their own future.”.

“We see things in a different perspective. We are part of a large international Pirate movement in 62 countries.” he added.

The Pirate Party movement began in Sweden in 2006, based on the principles of support for ‘civil rights, direct democracy and participation, reform of copyright and patent law, free sharing of knowledge (Open content), information privacy, transparency, and freedom of information’, according to Wikipedia.

Likely inspired by the file sharing website ‘Pirate Bay’, the loosely affiliate movement now exists in more than 60 countries with political representation in at least a dozen countries but never commanding more than 1 per cent of the vote. They do however have surprising success at the European elections where the Swedish MEPs gained 7.13 per cent of the vote from Swedes.

 

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