Politics

Pirate party crosses the 40% threshold: Recent poll shows 42% would vote for Pirates

By Staff

Pirate Party continues to soar in the polls Birgitta Jónsdóttir MP for the pirate party says she is humbled by the support the party. Photo/Valli.

A poll conducted for the local newspaper Fréttablaðið and TV station Stöð 2 finds that 42% of voters would vote for the Pirate party if elections were held today. This is the first time the party polls above 40%. This is a significant increase since the last Fréttablaðið/Stöð 2 poll, conducted at the beginning of November. That poll showed the Pirate party enjoyed the support of 36.3% of voters.

“I don’t know what to say,” Birgitta Jónsdóttir, an MP for the party, told Fréttablaðið when asked for her reaction to the poll. Birgitta said she had no ready explanation for the support of the party. That should be a question for political scientists and journalists, “because I simply don’t know the answer. But one feels humbled.”

Birgitta also noted that it was interesting to note that poll after poll showed that the “tower” of Icelandic politics, the conservative Independence party, enjoys only half as much support as the Pirate party. Only 23.2% of respondents said they would vote for the Independence party, down from 29.3% in the last Fréttablaðið/Stöð 2 poll. The centre-right Progressive party, the Social democratic alliance and the Left-green movement all enjoy the support of ca 10% of voters.