In March 2015, something extraordinary happened in Iceland: polls suggested that the Pirate Party had inched ahead of the Independence Party to become the most popular party in the country.

A year and a half later, with national elections more than likely coming at the end of October, the Pirates might form Iceland's next government. If that happens, Iceland would become the first country in the world to be led by a party that was born of technology.

The movement dates back a decade, to when Rick Falkvinge founded the first Pirate Party in Sweden. Falkvinge's main focuses were Internet copyright reform—specifically shorter copyright terms, more copyright exceptions, and a ban on digital rights management—and the fight against online surveillance.

However, as the movement spread to other countries, particularly Germany, it evolved to place greater emphasis on things like transparency and "direct democracy" online. "In Sweden, we couldn't have a demand for transparency in government, because it's in the constitution already," says Falkvinge. "It goes very well with the Pirate spirit. We're in agreement on the direction society should go, but we all have different starting points."

Indeed, Pirate Parties in various European countries have taken very different paths that have led to varying degrees of success, as well as catastrophic flameouts, some of which have even ended in tragedy and murder.

From the Icelandic ashes

Transparency was certainly an appropriate starting point for the Icelandic Pirates, who in 2012 launched onto a national political landscape that had been turned upside down.

Iceland was thoroughly hammered by the 2008 financial crisis, which claimed three of its banks and, in 2009, its Independence Party-led government. The Icelandic króna collapsed. The collapsed banks—Kaupthing, Landsbanki, and Glitnir—were nationalised. The public engaged in massive protests for several months, with key complaints being the government's opacity and poor management of the economy.

"After the fallout with the banks in 2008 we were ready to have a political change. We wanted to make our country into a more progressive space," says Ásta Helgadóttir, one of Iceland's three current Pirate members of parliament, who won their seats in 2013. "The idea of transparency and more direct democracy, people were starting to think about the importance of that. That has something to do with the success of the Pirates here in Iceland."

Crucially, the Pirates want to hold a referendum on whether or not the country should continue with the process of acceding to the European Union. The Social Democratic Alliance, which led the government after the 2009 elections, started the accession process. The Independence Party and the Progressive Party, which formed a coalition after the 2013 elections, are eurosceptic and suspended the process.

"Our position is that we should have a referendum and figure out if people think it's worth doing," says Helgadóttir. And do the Pirates support accession? "It depends on what kind of deals we get with the EU—personally I am in favour."

The Pirates want to finalise Iceland's new constitution and force the separation of powers between the government and parliament; they want to ensure that government ministers can no longer hold voting rights within the parliament at the same time. "Ministers have traditionally been MPs, which means they get access to even closed parliamentary meetings," explains Helgadóttir. "It doesn't give the parliament the autonomy it needs to discuss bills."

They also want to reform fishing policy, redistributing rights as "it's a natural resource that belongs to all the people."

Icelandic Pirates, in common with many other Pirate parties, don't have a leader as such (though Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a poet and former WikiLeaks activist, is largely treated by the media as de facto boss). They are also very big on fighting Internet censorship and promoting net neutrality and open data, but they are a long way away from discussing the traditional Pirate topics of copyright and privacy.

That's what happens when you're looking to form a national government.

"In order for us to enforce proper tech policies, we have to fix some fundamental issues first," says Helgadóttir. "We are in national parliament, we have to address national issues, and they are quite focused on how the system works."

If Helgadóttir and her colleagues succeed in leading the next national coalition in Iceland, they will have made it a lot further than any of their counterparts in other countries, but they would not be the first to meet success in elections.

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