PM Cautions Against Pirate-Led Government, Again

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson said a Pirate-led government would “soon unravel”.

The interview, which calls the Pirate Party “Iceland’s next scare”, focuses on the sustained high polling the party has been enjoying over the past 10 months nows. Pirate Party captain Birgitta Jónsdóttir, while tempering her optimism, discussed the talks she has had with other parties about the possibility of joining them in a coalition government after elections take place next year.

Turning to the Prime Minister for his thoughts, Sigmundur Davíð at first takes a light approach to the subject of a Pirate Party victory.

“If it happens I will consider going into hiding until the next election,” he said, adding, “I’m kidding.”

Sigmundur likens the success of the Pirate Party to the growing popularity of anti-establishment movements around the world – and includes Donald Trump within that movement. When asked how he thinks a Pirate-led government would play out, though, he cautioned that it would not last long.

“There’s a strong anarchist streak there,” he said. “Such a coalition would soon unravel.”

This is not the first time the Primate Minister has warned voters against letting the Pirates win. Last June, Sigmundur Davíð cautioned that a Pirate victory would be bad for Iceland.

“If general discontent led to a revolutionary party – a party with some very unclear ideas about democracy, and a party which wants to upheave the foundations of society – becoming influential, that would be cause for concern for society as a whole,” he said at the time, adding that if their current polling success held on until election day, “It would take society in a whole other direction, where it would be difficult to hang onto those values that we possess and have been building on for decades.”