June 8th, 2009
Yo, ho ho! Sweden sends a Pirate to Parliament
Arrgh, matey members of Parliament!
The Pirate Party won 7.1 percent of the votes in Sweden’s election, enough to take one of Sweden’s 18 seats in the European Parliament, AFP reports. The name is ironic, since its members believe there is a certain right to fileshare - or at least a right not to be punished with Draconian rules.
“Privacy issues and civil liberties are important to people and they demonstrated that clearly when they voted today,” one of the party’s candidates, Anna Troberg, told Swedish television on Sunday.
In 2006 Sweden passed punishing rules against filesharing that were used against The Pirate Bay in a prosecution earlier this year (which govtech covered extensively here).
Now, says Pirate King Rick Falkvinge:
Citizens have understood that it’s time to pull the fist out of the pocket and that you can make a difference. We don’t accept to be bugged by the government. People start to understand that the government is not always good.
According to News.com’s Mats Lewan, the party’s goals are (1) reform copyright law, (2) destroy the patent system, (3) protect citizens’ rights to privacy.
Oh, the other impact of the election? The Social Democrats upset the ruling Moderates, while the Greens doubled their support. The far-right Sweden Democrats tripled their support to 3.3 percent, not yet enough to win a seat.
