Iceland's Pirate Party loses four MPs in new elections

Still in the hunt to form governing coalition, if it can be bothered Iceland's privacy-friendly Pirate Party has lost four seats at new national elections. In October 2016 the party topped opinion polls and looked set to become a partner in a governing coalition, but ended up with fifteen per cent of the vote and ten seats, …

[Youngone]

Iceland of the free

I love the Icelanders, they seem to be an independent lot, and do their own thinking.

I see they managed to get 8 different parties into the Althing which is good, no party having a majority of any kind, which is also good.

[David Roberts]

Burst of popularity then fail to deliver

Remind you of any UK parties?

Then again going into coalition might have been even worse.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Burst of popularity then fail to deliver

What does remind me of our parties is the fate of Bright Future.

They went into a coalition to keep the larger partners honest and accountable. When this child abuse scandal hit, they did the decent thing and forced an election. As a result they have been wiped out, zero seats in this election.

Voters always punish the honest side of any coalition.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Burst of popularity then fail to deliver

Voters always punish the honest side of any coalition.

I've yet to see any coalition with an honest side, they're all made up of parties that couldn't make it alone but are still desperate to get some power, somehow, no matter what principles have to be compromised. Which is why they get a kicking later, voters arent that stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Burst of popularity then fail to deliver

I will blame the time change for my use of the word "honest" in reference to a political party.

s/honest/less shitty/

[Neil Barnes]

A party whose line is more privacy

And a Government that fell because things they wanted privacy for were exposed... I can see the voters point of view.

I suspect that what many want is privacy for themselves and transparency for those who set themselves up in public office.

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't the Panama Papers that sank the Icelandic government (though it should). It was something much more sordid.

Former Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson's father signed a letter recommending that a convicted paedophile, Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson who had been convicted of raping his stepdaughter almost daily for twelve years should have his civil status restored. This is an unusual provision in Icelandic law that allows convicted criminals to have their records wiped so that they can return to a very small society. The cases are reviewed by the Ministry of the Interior, and incredibly previous 'restorations of honour' have included convicted murderers and paedophiles.

The application received huge amounts of attention in the media but the Ministry of Justice refused to disclose the names of the backers, despite being legally obliged to do so. PM Bjarni was informed that his father was involved in the case by the Minister of Justice, Sigríður Andersen, several months earlier, but continued to refuse to disclose the names until he was forced to do so by a Parliamentary committee.

At that point his coalition partners, Bright Future, pulled out of the government claiming that it was clear the Independence Party was not sharing information with the entire government.

Unfortunately this tight link of friends and family is a recurrent feature in Iceland - the same mix was central to bringing down the banks ten years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Panama Papers sank the Icelandic government. They had an election and after months of wrangling a three-party coalition was set up to take over.

Then the issue you reference became known and one member of the coalition walked away from it the same day, forcing a second election so soon after the first.

Now they have to wrangle more coalition deals again. Unfortunately Iceland doesn't have the facility for a minority government so this could run and run...