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-- OriginalOwner_ [tinyurl.com] writes:

from the arrrr! dept.

Common Dreams reports [commondreams.org]

Consider Iceland, the country that supported [rt.com] Wikileaks, welcomed [independent.co.uk] refugees when its [government] wouldn't, boasts [instagram.com][1][2] [archive.is] a warm fuzzy police Instagram, and alone chose to jail [wearechange.org] corrupt bankers (with 26 sentenced to 74 years in prison).

Now, a new survey has found [visir.is][1] that the activism-based Pirate Party--which touts civil rights, collective effort, transparency, net neutrality, and "the wisdom of the masses"--has grown into by far that country's most popular political party. As proof of their newfound popularity, they're attracting the usual derisive press from the powers that be; a recent Bloomberg story calls [bloomberg.com] them "Iceland's next scare".

The Pirates now have 38% support from Icelandic voters, up dramatically from the 5% they started with a few years ago. Their support vastly outweighs both the conservative Independence Party's 27.6% and the center-right increasingly-distrusted [visir.is] Progressive Party's 12.8% (about half what it had when it became ruler of the current coalition). The new numbers mean that, if elections were held today, the Pirates' current three seats would soar to 26 seats, no government could be formed [grapevine.is] without them, and they would dominate [torrentfreak.com] whatever coalition resulted.

[...]The first priority proclaimed in its platform [piratar.is][3] [is] "We want you in charge." Among the issues they advocate for are increased and online voter participation, net neutrality and copyright reform, further breaking up big banks, greater health care access, a 35-hour work week, and ecologically sound fishing quotas.

[1] In the Icelandic language
[2] Content is behind scripts. archive.is fixes that.
[3] Malformed link in TFA; corrected in summary.

Original Submission