Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

Iceland’s Pirate Party may form next
government, according to polls
From Alexandra Sims in The Independent
Iceland’s radical Pirate Party, calling for a 35-hour working week, direct
democracy and total drug decriminalisation, has a strong likelihood of
forming the country’s next government, according to polls, which the
party has dominated since last year.
The anti-establishment party, founded by a group of activists, poets and
hackers in 2012, won three of 63 seats in Iceland’s parliament, the
Alþingi, at the last election in April 2013.
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Iceland’s Pirate Party secures more funding than all its rivals
Support for the party has grown to such an extent some analysts are
now confident the party could return to the Alþingi with between 18 and
20 MPs giving them a favourable number of seats to help form the next
government, Iceland Monitor reports.
In June, the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland
found the party was the largest in the country, leading polls at 29.9
per cent, with the centre-right Independence Party, which forms part of
Iceland’s coalition government with the Progressive Party, at 22.7 per
cent.
MID-AUGUST 2016