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'Arr!' Forget Icesave, Iceland's Next Scare Is the Pirate Party

  • Party vows bank shakeup, 35-hour work week ahead of 2017 vote
  • Prime minister says Pirate-led coalition unlikely to last
Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir stands for a portrait amongst the smundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum.

Pirate lawmaker Birgitta Jonsdottir stands for a portrait amongst the smundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum.

Photographer: Giles Clarke/Getty Images

From Spain’s Podemos to France’s National Front, anti-establishment parties are clamoring for power across Europe. Up north in Iceland, it’s Pirates who are making the biggest ahoys.

With just over a year until parliamentary elections are due, the Icelandic Pirate Party has been consistently topping opinion polls.