Ogmundur Jonasson, whose liberal Left-Green Party is backing the proposal along with the Pirate Party and Brighter Future Party, put the issue before the Judicial Affairs Committee, but the idea received minimal support.

‘We wanted to do this earlier,’ wrote Pirate Party politician Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson on his Facebook page. ‘But citizenship is an extremely delicate issue when it’s granted by parliament instead of granted through ordinary legal processes.’

Iceland’s parliament, known as Althing, saw three Pirate Party members elected in 2013. NPR billed the party as an ‘international online freedom movement.’

Jonasson argued to parliament on Thursday that Snowden ‘is now being chased and has nowhere to go,’ according to Icelandic media.

Snowden also has a friend in former Icelandic presidential candidate Asthor Magnusson, who is collecting signatures from Icelanders as part of a petition to make his a citizen.