Pirate Party in Iceland set to make establishment walk the plank

WHILE Spain prepares for more of the same under the new Rajoy government, Iceland is steaming ahead with an extremely different approach.

Polls show that the anti-establishment Pirate Party are on track to rock the status quo and knock the ruling right-wing coalition from its perch.

Led by a poet, Birgitta Jonsdottir, and backed by an ambitious army of internet activists, the Pirate Party is a modern movement that has pledged to wipe out corruption, give sanctuary to Edward Snowden and embrace the brave new world of online currency.

They have found fertile breeding ground in a country still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis and revelations earlier this year that top officials were implicated in the Panama Papers.

Polling shows that they stand a strong chance of securing a governing role in a broad coalition comprising environmentalists and socialists which had 47 per cent support before the country heads to the polls on October 29.