[ISL] "Pirate Party Grasps for Power as Icelanders Cast Their Votes"
Omar Valdimarsson's Bloomberg article leaves me curious about how the Pirate Party will govern Iceland once in office.
Icelanders started voting in a snap election that polls show could propel the populist Pirate Party into a ruling coalition after the sitting conservative government became tainted by the Panama Papers scandal.
Braving rain, gusty winds and temperatures not far above freezing, Icelanders starting voting at 9 a.m. on Saturday across the north Atlantic island. Voting closes at 10 p.m. with final results not expected until late into the night.
The election is taking place against the backdrop of rising populism across the western world and what Allianz SE chief economic adviser Mohamed El-Erian called spreading disruptions from the “politics of anger."
Surveys published in the final days of the election campaign point to a defeat for the ruling conservative alliance and victory for opposition parties spearheaded by the Pirate Party and the Left-Green Movement.
“The only thing that’s absolutely clear from the polls is that the current government won’t survive," Olafur Hardarson, a political science professor at the University of Iceland, said in an interview. "Icelandic society is still dealing with a lot of distrust and hostility toward politicians and the establishment -- political parties and the parliament. So even though we’ve recovered economically, we’re still in a political, moral and a social crisis. That’s visible now in the huge following with new political parties.”
Icelanders started voting in a snap election that polls show could propel the populist Pirate Party into a ruling coalition after the sitting conservative government became tainted by the Panama Papers scandal.
Braving rain, gusty winds and temperatures not far above freezing, Icelanders starting voting at 9 a.m. on Saturday across the north Atlantic island. Voting closes at 10 p.m. with final results not expected until late into the night.
The election is taking place against the backdrop of rising populism across the western world and what Allianz SE chief economic adviser Mohamed El-Erian called spreading disruptions from the “politics of anger."
Surveys published in the final days of the election campaign point to a defeat for the ruling conservative alliance and victory for opposition parties spearheaded by the Pirate Party and the Left-Green Movement.
“The only thing that’s absolutely clear from the polls is that the current government won’t survive," Olafur Hardarson, a political science professor at the University of Iceland, said in an interview. "Icelandic society is still dealing with a lot of distrust and hostility toward politicians and the establishment -- political parties and the parliament. So even though we’ve recovered economically, we’re still in a political, moral and a social crisis. That’s visible now in the huge following with new political parties.”