The public face of the Icelandic Pirate Party, Birgitta Jonsdottir is a hacker, cyberspace anarchist, poet — and a rather reluctant politician.
However, she could find herself strutting the corridors of power if the Pirate Party emerges as expected as the strongest group in Saturday’s election in the North Atlantic island nation.
“I’m not a career politician. I ended up here by pure accident, maybe I’m just a poetician,” the activist and lawmaker told AFP in Reykjavik.
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The daughter of folk singer mother and a father she never knew, Ms. Jonsdottir has worked in a variety of fields, including as a graphic designer, journalist and spokeswoman for WikiLeaks, as well as a painter and poet. “I could do anything I wanted to but I decided when I was 14 that I wanted to become a poet,” said the 49-year-old lawmaker whose pitch-black hair and bangs give her a distinctive punk rock style.
The Pirate Party, which she co-founded in 2012, is leading in opinion polls ahead of the snap election and could find itself negotiating to form a coalition government with other Opposition parties.
But the mother-of-two has expressed reluctance to take on the role of Prime Minister in the country of 3,30,000 people because she is seeking a radical change to the power structure in Iceland.
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Her party has pledged to stamp out public corruption in Iceland after the Panama Papers revelations in April that tarnished bankers, CEOs and cabinet ministers, and cost the then Prime Minister his job.
It wants to get rid of the traditional parties of the centre-right and right which were associated with the disastrous banking system collapse in 2008 and the Panama Papers scandals. “Is Iceland going to be brave enough to say no to this corruption bloc which is affiliated with the governmental parties and going to vote for change or are they not ready yet? I hope they are ready!” Ms. Jonsdottir said.