Pirate Party makes parliamentary breakthrough

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Pirate Party makes parliamentary breakthrough

Iceland’s Pirate Party has won three seats in the country’s 63-seat parliament, the Althing

The party, which was formed just last year, took 5.1% of the vote, narrowly passing the 5% threshold needed to be eligible to take a seat in parliament.

The three Pirate Party MPs are Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a former MP for The Movement Party, business administration student Jón Þór Ólafsson and programmer Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson.

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, welcomed the results on his website: “Tonight, we party and salute our glasses of rum to our Icelandic brothers and sisters in the movement. Well done!”

Centre-right parties took the most number of parliamentary seats, with MPs from the Independence party and the Progressive party set to start coalition talks.

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