MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the latest opinion polls, the Pirate Party is, at about 20 percent of the votes, slightly behind the ruling center-right Independence Party, losing the leading position indicated by the earlier polls but still highly likely to form government after the country’s general elections on October 29. The Pirate Party has promised to finish legislative work necessary to enact a new constitution.
"We are ready. If you look at the way the previous government has governed before us, you come to a conclusion that many years of experience within the outdated system does not provide a guarantee for running a government. Our best quality is that we may not be very experienced in the world of politics, in a sense of the way it is run now in Iceland, but what we are experienced in is a wide range of other jobs and other experiences from the society, as well as having a strong belief that we want to take critical and informed decisions about the things that we do," Aevarsdottir said, when asked if the party is experienced enough to rule a country.
"When asked about our popularity, I usually talk about us having an experience of what you can call ‘a perfect storm’ where we had excellent parliamentarians these past 3.5 years that spoke not like typical politicians who always hide behind words saying a lot of things to confuse the electorate," Aevarsdottir, who is also running for the second seat of the Southwest Constituency, noted.
She added that the party’s popularity was largely due to anti-corruption and anti-establishment votes amid a scandal which erupted in April after the release of the Panama Papers revealing corruption in Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson’s government.
"Our success has to do a lot with the fact that we want to fight corruption giving people their power back, giving them right to say not only every four years but more regularly. I believe that the general electorate trusts us with the task to clean up politics a bit," Aevarsdottir said.
Economic problems that Iceland has been facing since 2008 have led to mass protests, with people prompting the government to redraw the country's constitution. After years of legislative work, the process has once already been stalled in the national parliament.
"It is quite difficult to say how long it would take to enable a new constitution as the opposition parties are reluctant of cutting the term short," Aevarsdottir, who is also running for the second seat of the Southwest Constituency, said.
According to Aevarsdottir, the adoption of the new constitution requires new parliamentary elections, which would put small opposition parties at risk of losing seats.
"So basically, what is needed for us to enact a new constitution is to put it through the parliament yet again. After that we would need to dissolve the parliament and have a new parliamentarian elections and this new parliament needs to accept the changes in the constitution for a new constitution to be enacted," she explained.
She said that the work on constitution might take three years, but noted that ultimately it would depend on the outcome of the next elections and the Pirate Party's position in the next government.
According to the latest opinion polls, the Pirate Party is, at about 20 percent of the votes, slightly behind the ruling center-right Independence Party, losing the leading position indicated by the earlier polls but still highly likely to form government after the country’s general elections on October 29. The Pirate Party has promised to finish legislative work necessary to enact a new constitution.
