Swedish pirates capture EU seat

[6souls]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...portersafp.jpg
Pirate Party supporters celebrate their win in the European elections

Sweden's Pirate Party has won a seat in the European Parliament.

The group - which campaigned on reformation of copyright and patent law - secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote.

The result puts the Pirate Party in fifth place, behind the Social Democrats, Greens, Liberals and the Moderate Party.

Rickard Falkvinge, the party leader, told the BBC the win was "gigantic" and that they were now negotiating with four different EU Parliamentary groups.

"Last night, we gained political credibility," said Mr Falkvinge.

"People were not taken in by the establishment and we got political trust from the citizens."

The profile of the Pirate Party and issues surrounding copyright law have dominated headlines in Sweden over the past few months.

Rallying cry

In April, a court in Sweden sentenced the four men behind The Pirate Bay, the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, to a year in jail and ordered them to pay $4.5m (£3m) in damages.

Mr Falkvinge said it had played a significant role in getting them the vote.

"The establishment is trying to prevent control of knowledge and culture slipping from their grasp.

"When the Pirate Bay got hit, people realised the wolf was outside the front door.

"That happened one month before the ballot opened, so it had quite a rallying effect," he said.

Parties within the European Parliament tend to join one of the big voting blocs, otherwise their MEP can become marginalised.

Mr Falkvinge said they were still considering their position.

"We're looking at four different EU Parliament groups," he said.

"However, we're probably going to join either the Green block or the ALDE group."

The biggest loser in Sweden's election was the eurosceptic June List party, which saw its share of the vote fall by more than 10 points to 3.6% of the vote. The Left Party also saw its vote halved to 5.6%.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Swedish pirates capture EU seat

[Obev]

Yar har, fiddle-de-dee.

Glad that at least one country isn't seeing a shift to the right. Here in the UK the only ones to gain have seem to have been parties with a worrying focus on nationalism and holocaust denial.

[oldoldman]

You are a pirate!

Also, do ugly girls exist in Sweden?

[Uzor]

You are a pirate!

Also, do ugly girls exist in Sweden?

Of course, rarities do exist.

And yeah, I were surprised by the number of people voting for the Pirate Party. It seem most of the first time voters voted for the Pirate Party. I highly doubt they would have gained as many votes and as much publicity had the pirate bay gone free.

[Skjie]

Yar har, fiddle-de-dee.

Glad that at least one country isn't seeing a shift to the right. Here in the UK the only ones to gain have seem to have been parties with a worrying focus on nationalism and holocaust denial.

BNP FUCK YEAH!

(PS: Aren't they illegal...)

[Dimmauk]

http://lubber.net/uploads/Main/you_are_a_pirate.jpg

[Kuya]

Not a single one of those parties mentioned had the word conservative in it lol.

[oldoldman]

Not a single one of those parties mentioned had the word conservative in it lol.

Because Europe isn't the free world. Duh.

[Kuya]

I guess the moderate party is the most conservative thing they have that is also popular.

[Obev]

(PS: Aren't they illegal...)

They're not illegal, but there are certain jobs where being a member of said "political" "party" is frowned upon. Like the police.

[Telamond]

Yeah, the moderate party is the most conservative we have, although we have minor parties that are more conservative, but they aren't popular at all.

Think the moderate could be described as the american democratic party. :S

[Maguspk]

Yeah, the moderate party is the most conservative we have, although we have minor parties that are more conservative, but they aren't popular at all.

Think the moderate could be described as the american democratic party. :S

Tell me, are all the women as beautiful as they are depicted, over there?

[Gryffes]

Tell me, are all the women as beautiful as they are depicted, over there?

The ugly ones are left to the bridge trolls.

[Ramor]

woo swedish pirates! they could rape me.

wait no, only if they were female.







actually anything's fine, woo swedish pirates!

[Telamond]

Tell me, are all the women as beautiful as they are depicted, over there?

O.o I'm gay.
But I do think they're all beautiful, and fashion forward etc.
The girls on the pic looks like your average every-day WoW playing girl.

[Khamsin]

So when are the Somalian pirates going to venture into politics?

[oldoldman]

The girls on the pic looks like your average every-day WoW playing girl.

Who's moving to Sweden with me?

[ZarakiKujata]

Which of the other parties is currently in power in Sweden? J/w because I was reading in the economist how the popularity of BNP/right wing parties in Britain for the EU parliament is due in some part to Labor currently being in power

Who's moving to Sweden with me?

I'll go, I've heard that Swedish girls love American guys..

[Acturus]

If I'm reading the wikipedia articles correctly, the Pirate Party secured a seat in the European Parliament before actually securing any seats in the Swedish Parliament first?

Pirate Party - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[edit] 2006 Swedish general election
The Pirate Party attracted 34,918 votes in the Swedish general election of 2006, their first participation at an election for parliament since the founding of the party less than 9 months prior. With 0.63% of the overall votes, it became the 10th biggest party of more than 40 participating. However, a voting result of less than 4% of the total votes does not qualify the party for seats in the Swedish Parliament. Getting more than 1% of the vote would have granted the party financial assistance from the state for printing ballots which is costly in Sweden, while at least 2.5% would grant them state funds for campaigning in the next election. Despite the setbacks, Falkvinge is already planning for the Swedish general election in 2010.[27]


[edit] 2009 European Parliament election

Christian Engström, the Swedish Pirate Party's top candidate for the European Parliament election, 2009See also: European Parliament election, 2009 (Sweden)
In the first pre-election poll [28] before the 2009 European Parliament election, the Pirate Party registered at 5.1%, which would be enough to get a seat in the parliament. The support for the party was concentrated to younger voters, especially those of ages 18–29 (where it is the second largest party) and 30-44 (where it is the fourth largest). [29]

By May 22, a Demoskop poll showed a 7.9% support amongst Swedish voters, making the Pirate Party the third largest party.[30] A week later this had grown to 8.2% and a projected two seats in Parliament, with 21.8% support amongst people aged 18–29.[31] The party's top two candidates are Christian Engström and Amelia Andersdotter.

A model-based prediction for the 2009 European Parliament election by political scientists estimated June 4, 2009 that the Pirate Party could be the third largest party from Sweden, gaining 2 seats.[32]

Finally, the Pirate Party got enough votes for at least one seat of the 18 available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament,[33] getting 7.1 % of the Swedish votes.[34] It is likely to join either the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe or European Greens-European Free Alliance group.[35]

Sounds like this Pirate Party concept is trying to sweep through Europe. That's pretty cool.

Sweden's next election is 2010. I look forward to the momentum that this party gains leading up to that.

[Telamond]

I myself didn't vote for the Pirate Party, they only have (what I know of) 3 main issues and no clear goal on how country is run. I think their popularity was because of what happened after the Pirate Bay trials. The ones who did vote for the Pirate Party were mostly 18-30 year old men.

At the moment it's a coalition of the "right" wing democrats/liberals/center/christian political party. Otherwise, the biggest party is usually a coalition of social democrats/left/green party. But I wouldn't trust my knowledge that much, since I'm not so interested in politics.