Pirates still ruling the roost in Iceland

Iceland’s Pirate Party would transform the make-up of the country’s parliament (‘Alþingi’) if general elections were held today, latest polling figures suggest.

As reported by national broadcaster RÚV yesterday (link in Icelandic), a new Gallup poll gives the party – which stands for direct democracy, freedom of information, and civil and political rights – 36.1% of the vote.

By way of contrast, the Pirates received 5.1% of the vote in the last Alþingi elections in 2013 – only just making the 5% threshold required to return an MP.

As can be seen from the graph below, the Pirates are not only beating all other rivals, but also outstripping the polling of the two current governing parties combined.

Iceland Monitor has put together a full overview of the parties currently with MPs in Alþingi, which you can consult here .

This new Gallup poll features for the first time a new party called Viðreisn (meaning literally ‘Regeneration’).

Viðreisn was set up in 2014 as a new liberal party in favour of concluding accession negotiations with the European Union (EU) and putting Icelandic membership to referendum.