Iceland’s incumbent Independence party was in pole position to try to form a new government after voters chose continuity in Saturday’s elections and support for the anti-establishment Pirate party, while sharply up, fell below early expectations.

The Pirates, founded four years ago by a group of activists, anarchists and former hackers, tripled their share of the vote to 14.5%, and together with an alliance of three left-of-centre parties won a total of 27 seats – five short of a majority in the country’s 63-seat parliament.

The centre-right Independence party, however, won almost 30% of the vote and a total of 29 seats with its coalition partner of the past three years, the Progressive party, which was badly hit by this year’s Panama papers scandal and lost more than half its MPs.

In a campaign whose early stages were dominated by public anger at Iceland’s traditional elites and a strong desire for political change, the Independence party promised to lower taxes and keep Iceland’s economic recovery on track.



“I cannot deny that … it would be natural that we are a leading party in the next government,” said the party’s leader, Bjarni Benediktsson, one of its 21 MPs. “We are gaining new seats in parliament, so we are very happy.”



'Trust can be restored': Icelanders on their parliamentary election Read more

The final shape of the government is far from clear, with multiple permutations possible, much horse-trading ahead and disagreement even on which party should be the first to attempt to form a new government. Benediktsson said he expected President Gudni Johannesson to hand his party the mandate to begin negotiations, since it was the largest. He added that he would prefer to form a three-party coalition, but declined to say with whom.

But the Pirates, too, said they would be looking to build a five-party coalition, including the newly established, liberal and pro-European Viðreisn (Regeneration) party, whose seven MPs could well prove the kingmakers in Iceland’s new administration.

“Epic success! There are a lot of coalition possibilities; lots of work ahead,” tweeted Smari McCarthy, one of the Pirates’ 10 MPs.



Of the Pirates’ allies, the Left-Green movement also picked up 10 seats, the Social Democrats three, and the centrist Bright Future four. The party has ruled out working with the two outgoing coalition members.

With 30 female MPs, Iceland has now leapfrogged Finland and Sweden to become the parliament with the highest proportion of female parliamentarians – more than 47% – in Europe.

The Pirates, riding a wave of public anger at what many voters saw as endemic political corruption laid bare by the 2008 financial crash and April’s Panama papers leaks, had been predicted to win up to 20% of the vote and even become Iceland’s largest party.

But the party’s co-founder, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an activist, poet and former WikiLeaks collaborator, said it was more than satisfied. “Our internal predictions showed 10% to 15%, so this is at the top of the range,” she said. “We are a platform for young people, for progressive people who shape and reshape our society.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest From left, leader of the progress party, Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson; Benedikt Johannesson; founder and chairman of the Vidreisn party, Oddny Hardardottir; Ottarr Olaf Proppé of the Bright Future party; Asta Gudrun Helgadottir of the Pirate party; and Katrin Jakobsdottir, chairman of Left Green party, at a TV debate on Saturday. Photograph: Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images

Some of the party’s younger voters, though, were upset. “I’m really sad,” said Bylgja Gudjonsdottir, a 22-year-old student. “This is our next generation that is taking the country to the next level. But they keep voting for the criminals we have here.”

Opponents argued that the Pirates could scare investors and derail an economy still recovering from the 2008 meltdown, when Iceland’s three main banks collapsed owing 11 times the country’s GDP, and the value of the krona halved.

Helped by a tourism boom – 2.4 million visitors, nearly seven times the country’s population, are expected in 2017 – economic growth is forecast to reach 4.3% this year, and unemployment has fallen to just over 3%.

The Pirates campaigned for direct democracy, government transparency, individual freedoms and the fight against corruption. The party also favours decriminalising drugs, offering asylum to whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, and relaxing restrictions on the use of the virtual currency bitcoin.

The election was triggered by the resignation of the former Progressive party prime minister, Sigmundur Davið Gunnlaugsson, who became the first major casualty of the Panama papers in April after the leaked legal documents revealed he and his wife had millions stashed offshore.



The revelations sparked outrage and some of the largest protests in Iceland’s history, forcing the government to replace Gunnlaugsson with the then agriculture and fisheries minister, Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, and promise fresh elections before the end of the year. Jóhannsson resigned on Sunday, paving the way for the formation of a new government.

More than 600 Icelanders – including cabinet ministers, bankers and business leaders – were shown to have holdings hidden in offshore accounts.</s>Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy.</s>Birgitta Jonsdottir, the co-founder of Iceland's Pirate Party, is joined by fellow activists as election results in Reykjavik.

HALLDOR KOLBEINS / AFP - Getty Images</s>Iceland holds a parliamentary election today.

Following are some election facts in a nutshell, most of them compiled by RÚV:

Most polling stations close at 10 pm, at which time the first results will be published.

There are 246,515 registered voters. That’s an increase of 8,780 since the last parliamentary election, in 2013. The number of men and women is about even.

Iceland is divided into six voting districts, each with its own number of members of parliament. They are the Northwest, Northeast, South and Southwest districts, in addition to Reykjavík South and Reykjavík North. Most MPs, or 13, come from the Southwest voting district, which consists of municipalities in the vicinity of Reykjavík. The Northwest district has the lowest number of MPs, or 8.

Twelve parties are on the ballot, nine of them running in all voter districts.

Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, has sixty-three members, all of whom will be elected today.

At least 32 MPs are needed for parties to form a majority government. Based on recent polls, there is no chance a two-party government can be formed.

Voter turnout seems to be somewhat lower than in the 2013 parliamentary election. In 2013, the voter turnout was 81.5 percent, the lowest ever in a parliamentary election.</s>REYKJAVIK, Iceland — The radical Pirate Party made gains but not a breakthrough in Iceland's election, as returns Sunday showed that voters the incumbent -right Independence Party over the upstart advocates of direct democracy and digital freedom.

No party emerged with a majority of parliament seats from an election dominated by public discontent at the establishment after years of financial crisis and political turmoil.

With almost all votes from the balloting Saturday counted, the Independence Party had 29 support and the Pirate Party 14.5 , putting them in third place behind the Left-Green movement at 15.9 .

The result should give the Independence Party about 21 seats in Iceland's 63-seat Parliament, the Althingi, with the Left-Greens and Pirates winning 10 each.

It's a better performance than expected for the Independents, who have governed in coalition since 2013.

The Pirates' result fell short of what some polls had suggested — and what the party's fleet of energetic volunteers and supporters had hoped.

Like Spain's Podemos or the movement behind Bernie Sanders in the U.S. presidential race, it drew in throngs of mostly young supporters fed up with the status quo.

Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir said the results were in line with the party's own prediction of between 12 and 15 — up from the 5 it secured in 2013.

"We're just amazed that we'll possibly maybe triple our following from last time, and it's only three years," Jonsdottir said.

The election result looks set to trigger a period of intense political negotiations. It was not immediately clear whether the Independents had the support to assemble a coalition government with other parties of the and right.

"These are very positive indicators for us, we are leading in all constituencies, we are gaining new seats in Parliament, so we are very happy," he said.

The tax-avoidance scandal outraged many Icelanders, who suffered years of economic upheaval after the country's debt-swollen banks collapsed during the 2008 global financial crisis.

The chief victim of voters' wrath was Gunnlaugsson's Progressive Party, which lost more than half its seats in the Althingi.

New parties made gains among weary voters. A kingmaker in government negotiations could be Vidreisn, or Renewal, a liberal party formed this year that advocates Iceland joining the European Union. It will take about seven parliament seats.

The election was dominated by Iceland's economy — now recovering on the back of a tourism boom, with low unemployment and high growth — and voters' desire for political reform.

The Pirates campaigned on promises to introduce direct democracy, subject the workings of government to more scrutiny and place the country's natural resources under public ownership

The party also backs tough rules to protect individuals from online intrusion. Jonsdottir, the Pirates' most prominent voice, is a former ally of WikiLeaks who has called on Iceland to offer citizenship to U.S. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

A wind-lashed volcanic island near the Arctic Circle with a population of 320,000, Iceland has become known in recent years for large street protests that ousted one government after the 2008 financial crash and dispatched another in April. It also has strong Scandinavian policies in support of social equality and women's rights.</s>REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — The radical Pirate Party made gains but not a breakthrough in Iceland’s election, as returns Sunday showed that voters favored the incumbent center-right Independence Party over the upstart advocates of direct democracy and digital freedom.

No party emerged with a majority of parliament seats from an election dominated by public discontent at the establishment after years of financial crisis and political turmoil.

With almost all votes from the balloting Saturday counted, the Independence Party had 29 percent support and the Pirate Party 14.5 percent, putting them in third place behind the Left-Green movement at 15.9 percent.

The result should give the Independence Party about 21 seats in Iceland’s 63-seat Parliament, the Althingi, with the Left-Greens and Pirates winning 10 each.

It’s a better performance than expected for the Independents, who have governed in coalition since 2013.

The Pirates’ result fell short of what some polls had suggested — and what the party’s fleet of energetic volunteers and supporters had hoped.

Founded four years ago by an assortment of hackers, political activists and internet freedom advocates, the Pirate Party drew international attention as its support surged.

Like Spain’s Podemos or the movement behind Bernie Sanders in the U.S. presidential race, it drew in throngs of mostly young supporters fed up with the status quo.

Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir said the results were in line with the party’s own prediction of between 12 and 15 percent — up from the 5 percent it secured in 2013.

“We’re just amazed that we’ll possibly maybe triple our following from last time, and it’s only three years,” Jonsdottir said.

The election result looks set to trigger a period of intense political negotiations. It was not immediately clear whether the Independents had the support to assemble a coalition government with other parties of the center and right.

As early results came in overnight, Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson said he was pleased.

“These are very positive indicators for us, we are leading in all constituencies, we are gaining new seats in Parliament, so we are very happy,” he said.

Saturday’s election was called after then-Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned in April during public protests over his offshore holdings, revealed in the Panama Papers leak.

The tax-avoidance scandal outraged many Icelanders, who suffered years of economic upheaval after the country’s debt-swollen banks collapsed during the 2008 global financial crisis.

The chief victim of voters’ wrath was Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party, which lost more than half its seats in the Althingi.

New parties made gains among weary voters. A kingmaker in government negotiations could be Vidreisn, or Renewal, a liberal party formed this year that advocates Iceland joining the European Union. It will take about seven parliament seats.

The election was dominated by Iceland’s economy — now recovering on the back of a tourism boom, with low unemployment and high growth — and voters’ desire for political reform.

The Pirates campaigned on promises to introduce direct democracy, subject the workings of government to more scrutiny and place the country’s natural resources under public ownership

The party also backs tough rules to protect individuals from online intrusion. Jonsdottir, the Pirates’ most prominent voice, is a former ally of WikiLeaks who has called on Iceland to offer citizenship to U.S. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Opponents argued that the inexperienced Pirates could scare off investors and destabilize the economy.

A wind-lashed volcanic island near the Arctic Circle with a population of 320,000, Iceland has become known in recent years for large street protests that ousted one government after the 2008 financial crash and dispatched another in April. It also has strong Scandinavian policies in support of social equality and women’s rights.

But Icelanders — infused with a spirit of Viking self-sufficiency — also have a strong conservative streak that led many to mistrust the Pirates and stick with the status quo.

As scores of Pirate supporters from Iceland and around the world watched the election results come in at a Reykjavik brewpub, the boisterous mood was tinged with disappointment.

“I’m really sad and I’m really disappointed in our young generation,” said 22-year-old student Bylgja Gudjonsdottir.

“This is our next generation that is taking the country to the next level. But they keep voting for the criminals we have here,” she said.</s>REYKJAVIK, Iceland — After stormy years for their country and amid stormy weather, Icelanders voted Saturday in a national election that offers a choice between continuity and many shades of change, with the radical Pirate Party seeking to unseat the centre-right government.

Founded four years ago by an assortment of hackers, political activists and Internet freedom advocates, the Pirate Party has made big gains among Icelanders fed up with established parties after years of financial turmoil and political scandal.

Polls suggest the Pirates are vying with the centre-right Independence Party to become the biggest group in the volcanic island nation’s parliament, the Althingi.

They currently hold just three of the 63 seats, and Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir said she could “never have fantasized or dreamed” about its current poll numbers.

“If people are ready, we are ready,” Jonsdottir said after casting her vote at a Reykjavik school on a blustery day.

The election was called after Prime Minister Sigmunder David Gunnlaugsson resigned in April amid public protests over his offshore holdings, revealed in the Panama Papers leak.

The tax-avoidance scandal outraged many Icelanders, who suffered years of economic upheaval after the country’s banks collapsed within a week of one another during the 2008 global financial crisis.

“If people are sick of living in this turmoil that we have been having here in Iceland, where you never know what tomorrow is going to bring,” they should put their trust in the Pirates, Jonsdottir said.

“Change is beautiful. There’s nothing to worry about,” she said. “We are ready to do whatever people trust us to do.”

Individual parties rarely win outright in Iceland’s multiparty system. Saturday’s vote is likely to produce either a centre-right coalition involving the Independence and Progressive parties that have governed since 2013, or a left-of-centre coalition involving the Pirates, the Left Green Movement and others.

A wind-lashed volcanic island near the Arctic Circle, Iceland has become known for large street protests that ousted one government after the 2008 financial crash and dispatched another in April. It also has strong policies in support of social equality and women’s rights.

But Icelanders — infused with a spirit of Viking self-sufficiency — also have a strong conservative streak that leads some to mistrust the Pirates.

“They’ll make chaos,” was the verdict of fishmonger Marselius Gundmundsson.

Another unpredictable factor is Vidreisn, or Revival, a new centre-right party founded by former Independence Party members that advocates Iceland joining the European Union. It is performing strongly among conservative voters seeking a change from the old parties.

“We want to improve things in Iceland,” said party leader Benedikt Johannesson. “We are a free-trade party, a pro-Western party, an open society party.”

Paul Fontaine, news editor of newsmagazine Reykjavik Grapevine, said the 2008 crisis and the wave of popular protest that followed “broke the mould” of Icelandic politics.

“Icelanders, like many Europeans and North Americans, have grown pretty weary of establishment politics, whether they’re on the left or the right,” he said. “I think that explains a large share of the Pirate Party’s support.”

The election debate has focused on the economy and voters’ desire for political reform.

The Pirates promise to introduce direct democracy, subject the workings of government to more scrutiny and place the country’s natural resources under public ownership.

The party also seeks tough rules to protect individuals from online intrusion. Jonsdottir, the Pirates’ most prominent voice, is a former ally of WikiLeaks who has called on Iceland to offer citizenship to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Opponents claim the inexperienced Pirates could scare off investors and destabilize an economy that is now recovering, with low unemployment and high growth.

“We’d rather be naive than corrupt,” Jonsdottir said.

The Pirates have no experience of government, and some voters seeking change say they are sticking with established parties like the Left Greens or the Social Democrats.

Gunnar Andresson, a teacher, said he sympathized with the Pirates but voted Social Democrat.

He said the Pirates “believe in a good cause, but I don’t think they are ready yet.”

Youth worker Birkir Vidarsson and his partner, Johanna Jonsdottir, decided to gamble on the Pirates.

“We are brought up with being afraid of new things,” Vidarsson said. “That’s very Icelandic.

“But with the Pirates being the second-biggest right now (in opinion polls) ... I think strategically it’s the right move.”

About 245,000 people are eligible to vote in the sparsely populated North Atlantic nation. Polls close at 10 p.m. (2200GMT), with partial results due early Sunday.</s>Iceland’s anti-establishment Pirate Party have plundered an historic victory in Iceland’s general election and are set to form government as the senior partner in a coalition of alternative parties.

The remaining votes are still being counted, but reports suggest Iceland will have a centre-left coalition of the Pirates and three, or possibly four, other non-establishment parties. Governments in Iceland are usually cobbled together coalitions, but the Pirates announced they will not consider working with a mainstream party.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, the Pirates’ parliamentary leader, said her party is willing to form a government with any party that subscribes to its agenda of “fundamental system change”, including the creation of a new, crowdsourced constitution.

The extraordinary victory for the Pirates is the latest example of an outsider gatecrashing the establishment, as voters around the world continue to reject traditional politics as unfit for purpose in the 21st century.

Founded in 2012 by former hackers, WikiLeaks collaborators, and activists, the Pirate Party won their first seat in the Althingi parliament one year later – and since then their popularity has exploded.

“We have managed to catch and capture the spirit of change with so many young people in Iceland,” said Jonsdottir, who describes herself as a “poetician.”

“We are very much about modernizing our system, so that people don’t fall through the cracks all the time.”

Support for the movement surged to 43% in an April poll after the Panama Papers revealed that former Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson held secret investments in offshore accounts — which led to some of the largest protests the country has ever seen.

Named the “Saucepan revolution” due to the making a racket in the streets with pots and pans, the massive protests removed the Prime Minister from office and kickstarted a societal change.

Jonsdottir likens Iceland to Sicily in that it has been controlled by a mafia-like handful of elite families. But Icelanders have a deep distrust of the elite, and since the financial crash in 2008 and the Panama Papers revelations last year, the society has vowed enough is enough.

Iceland has differed from the rest of Europe and the US by allowing bankers to be prosecuted as criminals, rather than treating them as a protected species. Top bankers were thrown in jail earlier this month after a long running case related to the 2008 crash. Now it seems the purge of the political class has begun.

What will Pirates in parliament actually mean?

The Pirates are against state surveillance in any form, and Edward Snowden is a national hero in Iceland. A resolution has been put forward to grant him citizenship of the wind-swept North Atlantic island.

Are they worried granting a haven to the NSA whistleblower might rile Iceland’s NATO ally in Washington?

“Yeah, well we have done things that don’t make other nations happy before,” she said. “Sometimes it’s a case of what’s doing what is right versus what is easy.”

The backlash against their bankers knows no bounds. Resentment runs deep, and adopting Bitcoin as the official currency will curtail the ability of banks to scam the people. The cryptocurrency is free, safe, is not inflationary, and a central government will never be able to take it off you.

The Pirates want to adopt the “Portuguese solution“. 15 years ago the Portuguese government did something that the United States and most countries around the world would find entirely alien. After many years of waging a fierce war on drugs, they decided to flip their strategy entirely. By decriminalizing all drugs, and treating addicts rather than punishing them, Portugal has drastically reduced the drug abuse in their country.

“We do not define ourselves as left or right but rather as a party that focuses on the systems,” Jónsdóttir has said. “In other words, we consider ourselves hackers—so to speak—of our current outdated systems of government.”

Did the Pirate Party campaign pushing any major legislation of its own? No, not really, because, according to Fortune magazine, “the official party stance on some of Iceland’s biggest political questions is unclear, in part, because its members believe in deferring to the wishes of voters.” That’s called direct democracy. For the first time in their lives, Icelanders have voted a government into power who will not betray their promises

There is a widespread hatred of central authority in Iceland, and the Pirates, with their anti-establishment beliefs and jaunty black-flag logo, are poised to take advantage of the dissident mood. They seem the perfect fit for a self-reliant country with a strong anti-authoritarian streak.

“This is a society that is very loosely organized in many ways,” said Asgeir Jonsson, a University of Iceland economist. “We don’t have an army, we never had a king. We hate all central authority.”</s>Icelandic Prime Minister Sigurdur Ingi Johannsson has resigned after the opposition Pirate Party beat the ruling Progressive Party and came third in the country’s general election.

Johannsson made the announcement on national television, promising to leave his post after his center-right party received only eight seats against last year’s 19 in the 63-seat parliament following Saturday’s snap election.

“This was in accordance with the constitution, to hand in my resignation and then be asked to stay in office until a new government has been formed,” Johannsson told reporters.

Johannsson took office in April after his predecessor, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, was implicated in a tax-dodging scheme revealed in the Panama Papers scandal and was forced to quit.

The Independence Party, which has been in coalition with Johannsson’s party, came in first with 29 percent of votes and 21 seats in the Althing, Iceland’s parliament. The number of seats for the Independence Party has grown since the last elections, when it received 19 seats.

Polls had suggested that the Pirate Party was most likely to take the largest share of the vote, but it eventually ended third with 10 seats, behind the Left-Green Party, which also secured 10 seats in parliament.

The leader of the Pirate Party, Birgitta Jonsdottir, said she was happy with the election returns.

“Whatever happens, we have created a wave of change in Icelandic society,” she said early on Sunday morning.

The party, founded in 2012, is overwhelmingly supported by voters that are under 30 years old. It focuses on public transparency, institutional reform and individual freedoms, and takes a strong stance against corruption.

The four leftist parties, including the Social Democratic Alliance and Bright Future, won 27 seats in total, while 32 are required to obtain a majority in the Althing.

The liberal Regeneration Party has already rejected the idea of joining the coalition of the current ruling parties, which means it could possibly join the left-leaning parties that would then form a new ruling coalition.

The shift in political sentiment in Iceland is attributed by many to the Panama Papers leak – the revelations which led to what the media say were the largest anti-government protests in Iceland’s history – as well as the 2008 economic crisis.</s>It’s a worse result for the Pirate Party than some polls suggested, and a better performance than predicted for the incumbent Independence Party .

Iceland looked likely to steer away from a Pirate takeover on Sunday, as voters favoured the incumbent Independence Party over the upstart band of buccaneers advocating direct democracy and Internet freedom.

With roughly half of votes counted from Saturday’s election, the Independence Party had about 30 per cent of ballots and the Pirate Party about 14 per cent, putting them in third place behind the Left-Green movement.

It’s a worse result for the Pirates than some polls suggested, and a better performance than predicted for the Independents, who have governed in coalition since 2013.

Coalition governments are the norm in Iceland’s multi-party system. It was not immediately clear whether the Independents would be able to assemble a coalition with other centrist and right-wing parties or whether the Pirates and other opposition forces would get the numbers to govern.

Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson said he was “extremely happy” with the early results. He said that given the party’s strong showing, it would be “extremely hard to not include us” in the next government.

Saturday’s election was held amid widespread public discontent with Iceland’s traditional elites, with debate focusing on the economy and voters’ desire for political reform

It was called after then-Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned in April during public protests over his offshore holdings, revealed in the Panama Papers leak.

The tax-avoidance scandal outraged many Icelanders, who suffered years of economic upheaval after the country’s debt-swollen banks collapsed during the 2008 global financial crisis.

The chief victim of voters’ wrath was Mr. Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party, which looked set to lose more than half its seats.

A kingmaker in government negotiations could be Vidreisn, or Renewal, liberal party formed this year that advocates Iceland joining the European Union. It looks set to gain a handful of parliament seats.

The Pirate Party, founded four years ago by an assortment of hackers, political activists and Internet freedom advocates, drew international attention as its support surged among Icelanders fed up with established parties after years of financial turmoil and political scandal.

Some polls had given the Pirates the support of a fifth of voters, potentially poised to become the biggest group in the volcanic island nation’s parliament, the Althingi.

Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir said the early results were in line with the party’s own prediction of between 12 and 15 per cent up from the 5 per cent it secured in 2013.

“If we get more than 15 per cent, we will be deeply thankful,” she said. “We’re just amazed that we’ll possibly maybe triple our following from last time, and it’s only three years.”

The Pirates campaigned on promises to introduce direct democracy, subject the workings of government to more scrutiny and place the country’s natural resources under public ownership

The party also seeks tough rules to protect individuals from online intrusion. Jonsdottir, the Pirates’ most prominent voice, is a former ally of WikiLeaks who has called on Iceland to offer citizenship to U.S. National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.

Opponents claim the inexperienced Pirates could scare off investors and destabilise an economy that is now recovering, with low unemployment and high growth.

As she cast her ballot on Saturday, Ms. Jonsdottir urged voters to take a chance on her untested party.

“Change is beautiful. There’s nothing to worry about,” she said. “We are ready to do whatever people trust us to do.”

A wind-lashed volcanic island near the Arctic Circle with a population of 320,000, Iceland has become known in recent years for large street protests that ousted one government after the 2008 financial crash and dispatched another in April. It also has strong Scandinavian policies in support of social equality and women’s rights.

But Icelanders infused with a spirit of Viking self-sufficiency also have a strong conservative streak that leads many to mistrust the Pirates.

The Pirates have no experience of government, and some voters seeking change said they were sticking with established parties like the Left-Greens or the Social Democrats.

As scores of Pirate supporters watched the election results come in at a Reykjavik brewpub, the boisterous mood was tinged with disappointment.

“I’m really sad and I’m really disappointed in our young generation,” said 22-year-old student Bylgja Gudjonsdottir.

“This is our next generation that is taking the country to the next level. But they keep voting for the criminals we have here,” she said.
Iceland’s incumbent, centre-right Independence Party surprised pollsters by winning 29 percent of the vote (21 seats), thereby putting leader Bjarni Benediktsson in position to organize another coalition government. The Progressive Party, the current ruling partner, garnered 11.5% and eight positions, a loss of 11 seats. The new Pirate Party didn't perform as predicted with 14.5% of the ballots, though it did get 10 seats, an increase of seven more positions in the 63-seat parliament (Althing).