Pirate Party (Iceland)

The Icelandic Pirate Party was founded on 24 November 2012 by Smári McCarthy and several Internet activists, including Birgitta Jónsdóttir (previously a member of the Movement).^[2][5][6][7] The party successfully applied for the ballot list letter Þ (resembling the party's logo) in order to run in the 2013 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.^[2] The three members elected, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson, and Jón Þór Ólafsson, were the first pirates elected to any national legislature in the world.^[8][9]

Following the Charlie Hebdo shooting on 7 January 2015, the Pirate Party began a campaign to repeal Iceland's blasphemy laws. The laws, which had been introduced in 1940, were successfully repealed in early July 2015.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".^[10] 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.^[11]

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.^[12][13][14] An MMR opinion poll published in January 2016 put their public support at 37.8%, significantly above that of all other Icelandic political parties.^[15]

In April 2016, public protests about the Prime Minister's role in the Panama Papers 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)".^[16] In the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, polls in April 2016 showed the Pirate Party at 43% and the Independence Party at 21.6%.^[17] A poll by the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland with data from 14–19 October 2016 put the Pirate Party in first place in the general election on 29 October 2016 with 22.6% of the vote.^[18]

Despite promising signs, party significantly underperformed in the 2016 election. 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.^[19]

In the 2017 election held a year later, the Pirates fell to sixth place, winning 9.2% of the vote and losing four seats, and remained around the same level of support in the 2021 election, winning six seats and remaining in sixth position. The party lost all its seats for the first time in the 2024 election.

• Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir & Viktor Orri Valgarðsson (2020) "Anarchy in Iceland? The global left, pirates and socialists in post-crash Icelandic politics." Globalizations.