The Icelandic Pirate Party has entered Parliament. This is clear as all the votes have been counted, with the Pirate Party at 5.1% as final result, just above the five-percent barrier to entry.
During the night, the support for the Icelandic Pirate Party briefly fell below the five-percent barrier to entry, making the outcome uncertain and the polls wrong. As of 1000 UTC, with all the votes counted, the Pirate Party’s support is at 5.1% with three seats. Article text has been updated to reflect this.
The Icelandic election campaign for the Alþing, the Icelandic parliament (pictured), had been bulging back and forth in support for the major parties. One thing that looked consistent was that the nascent Icelandic Pirate Party kept growing, polling between 6.5% and 9.0% in recent polls.
As the first MP was announced for the Pirate Party from the Iceland Southwest constituency, where the party initially held a full 8.3% of the votes, the roof lifted at the Pirate victory dinner celebrations in a posh seafood restaurant in the center of Reykjavik.
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, and got seats in the Alþing today – three seats, as per current projections. That is a speed record by any measure.
This makes the Icelandic Pirate Party the first in the movement to enter a national, proportional parliament! Heartfelt congratulations. Achievement unlocked. After this victory, there are no further governmental levels where the movement is not represented.
The Icelandic Pirate Party didn’t start from nothing, though. They were lucky enough to have very seasoned activists bootstrap the party – such as Birgitta Jónsdóttir (of Wikileaks and of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, et al) and Smári McCarthy (similarly involved in IMMI and other projects). We don’t know yet which pirates get the actual seats in the Alþing – that will depend on vote distribution among constituencies and such.
Regardless, there will no doubt be a lot of work to do in the Alþing – even though 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.
But not tonight.
Tonight, we party and salute our glasses of rum to our Icelandic brothers and sisters in the movement. Well done!
congratulations!
The Swarm is growing!!
Heartfelt Estonian congratulations! Next in line, we take it all
Yeah, thats really great News for our Movement 😉
Congratulation from me as we’ll,
But I also like to remind you of Libor Michálek, who was elected into Senate of Czech Republic on a pirate party ticket (being nonpartisan)
Was elected on a confederacy of three parties, IIRC, not standing as a Pirate.
True. He’s a vicechairman of the Czech Pirate Party though so I would count him as first 🙂
The Pirate senator is Libor Michalek. The Pirate Party vicechairman is Jakub Michalek. They are two different unrelated people.
Andrew, he was supported by two other smaller parties, but he was on the pirate party ticket – they nominated him and also did all the business with signatures and everything.
Senate elections are first-past-the-post, not proportional, which is the distinction Rick draws.
Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched.
Icelandic Pirate Party is not the first pirate party to enter a national parliament. In November 2012, Libor Michalek entered the Senate of the Czech Republic. He ran for a coalition of Czech Pirate Party, Green Party, and Christian Democratic Party.
Congratulations to all those involved. You’ve done something awesome. And good luck, this is just the beginning in the world of politics, there will be many more things to come.
well done everyone. let’s hope that changes for the good of all can now start to happen (particularly without the interference of the USA!!)
Congratulations , i wish more success then in germany 😉
Germany has federal elections this year. 😉
National elections: Sep.22
State elections in Bavaria Sep. 15 and Hesse Sep.22
I hope this win reach Germany and gives Piratenpartei wind in sails again.
[…] de Zweedse piraat Rick Falkvinge is de prestatie van de piraten bijzonder omdat de partij pas negen maanden geleden werd opgericht. […]
Congratulations!
BTW aren’t these Pirates the new MPs?
http://www.mbl.is/frettir/kosningar/results/mps/?party=%C3%9E&year=2013
Yes – Birgitta, Jon Thor and Helgi are the new MPs. (Iceland doesn’t have last names as the rest of the world knows them – they’re used to communicate lineage, like “Gimli, son of Glóin”, so use of first names is correct.)
@Rick
You don’t mention the ‘other’ Icelandic Pirate Partie ‘Bright Future’ (Björt framtíð) which took 8,3% of the popular vote. And now has six MP’s. Aren’t they in your opinion officially affiliated to the Pirate Parties International?
Hi George,
I am confused by your question. I have not been in touch with Bright Future, I know nothing of their policies. Given their choice of name, I have no reason to call them a Pirate Party (all pirate parties have that exact name in their local language).
Regarding who’s an official member of the Pirate Parties International, that is not something that is left up to my opinion, but to protocolized decisions from the PPI General Assemblies.
According to the PPI map on Wikipedia, there are no members of the PPI on Iceland (but an active Pirate Party is noted).
Cheers,
Rick
Hi again George,
now, that’s a surprise. I just learned that they joined the PPI at the last General Assembly. That certainly stirs things up yet more for Iceland.
Still, looking at their policies, I have a hard time finding the pirate core issues of liberating culture and knowledge, promoting diversity and infrastructure, and holding government accountable and transparent. Can you assist me in finding this in their policies?
Cheers,
Rick
The first step is always a moment to celebrate!
😀
[…] με μετάφραση από το, INFOPOLICY: “Icelandic Pirate Party WINS, Enters Parliament”, Rick Falkvinge, tag: Pirate […]
It’s nice to see the pirates also in iceland in the parliament, but what worries me,
is the fact that the “Elites” that fucked-everything-up are back in power.
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Congratulations!
I hope this will be the start of many more Pirate MPs to come 🙂
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[…] has been very progressive with its ideas, fewer of those ideas have been implemented in law,” says Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge. “Having legislators in Iceland may facilitate that; […]
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@Rick
Reading the English translation of the ‘Points from our election platform, 2013’ of Björt framtíð/ Bright Future it’s hard to find the points you’re looking for. It looks more leftwing than the pirate-thing.
http://www.bjortframtid.is/english/
The points seem to be present, but as you already said/asuggested not in the hardcore form one can aspect from a Pirate Party. For instance about consumer protection and access to information is says:
‘We are all consumers, and in order to be able to make enlightened decisions we need easy access to sound information. Laws, regulations, supervision, research and education—we need a combination of and synergy between all these things to protect consumers against fraud, health risks and poor service. Enlightened and aware consumers ensure a healthy marketplace.’
This is more an attempt to sound like a genuine Pirate Party than the real McCoy. But I wasn’t present in Kazan so I can’t give you more details. Maybe you can invite a guest to write a column about the conditions for parties to become a member of the PPI.
[…] The Icelandic Pirate Party has entered parliament. […]
[…] Germany) and, through a coalition, a senate seat in a national legislature (in the Czech Republic). It now claims its first national, directly elected representative, in the Icelandic […]
That’s one way to see it. Please note that I didn’t expect higher numbers, but here’s my version: Icelandic Pirate Party LOSES, only gets three seats in Parliament. This is not anywhere near enough to actually make a well-needed difference. Let’s hope that democracy survives until the next election, and that more people understand what is happening, that it is happening, and what to do about it.
I don’t know about Iceland, but here in Sweden the coming election is in 2014 and the next in 2018. I do not think that democracy survives until 2018.
Of course you are right. However most promising people who really understand these pirate issues and are labelled as “potential threats” are “caught” early by the gatekeepers and intimidated into silence by various manipulations including worse than the worst possible kind of social disintegration you could think of…
What are you talking about? “Gatekeepers”? “Social disintegration”? Are you trying to ridicule me or just look stupid? There are serious problems with democracy in Sweden, EU, US, and propably elswhre too, but anything like what you describe would be too obvious. The internet is still relatively free from censorship, even if it’s not free from surveillance.
However, there is no doubt in my mind that “pirate-ness” has it’s own factor in the FRA, NSA and other databases over internet users. It is not used for anything particular today, but saved for later use. Later, as in after 70 years, or next year…
[…] Germany) and, through a coalition, a senate seat in a national legislature (in the Czech Republic). It now claims its first national, directly elected representative, in the Icelandic […]