“The Pirates Are Coming” – Iceland’s Pirate Party Polls at 43% Following the PM’s Resignation
Michael Krieger
LibertyBlitzkrieg.com
Monday Apr 11, 2016
The most fascinating and encouraging political movement occurring anywhere on earth at the moment is taking place in the tiny nation of Iceland. No, it has nothing to do with the recent resignation of the country’s Prime Minister after it was discovered via the Panama Papers that he and his wife owned Icelandic bank debt through an undisclosed offshore vehicle. What I’m referring to is the exponential popularity of the less than four-year-old “Pirate Party.”
So what is the Pirate Party? Motherboard explains:
Over 20,000 protesters descended on the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik last week following the release of the Panama Papers, over 11 million files from the database of Mossack Fonseca, one the world’s largest offshore law firms. Gathered in front of the Icelandic Parliamentary building, the protesters were calling for the resignation of their prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson after the Panama Papers revealed that he and his wife had major financial conflict of interest tied up in a shell company in the British Virgin Islands.
On Tuesday, Gunnlaugsson bowed to the will of his constituency and appealed to Icelandic president Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson to sign for his release and hold a recall election. Gunnlaugsson’s request was denied and instead Grímsson requested Gunnlaugsson to resign and appointed Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson, Gunnlaugsson’s deputy, as the new prime minister.
Many Icelanders have criticized this move as a meaningless political reshuffling, seeing as Gunnlaugsson is still retaining his position as chairman of the Progressive Party and a member of Parliament, and nearly two-thirds of Icelanders say they don’t trust the new government.
Still others saw this as nothing more than a political move meant to suppress the ascendancy of Iceland’s unlikely political champion: the Pirates.
The Rest…HERE
The Rest…HERE
