Pirate Party takes two EuroParl seats!

The Pirate Party, a Swedish copyright reform party that was inspired by The Pirate Bay, has won two seats in the European Parliamentary election. The party attributes its success in part to the scandal surrounding the trial of The Pirate Bay's operators, which was conducted by a judge who failed to disclose that he was a prominent member of a copyright-industry-friendly copyright-expansion association.

This should be interesting.

When we asked Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge about the outcome, he told TorrentFreak: "We've felt the wind blow in our sails. We've seen the polls prior to the election. But to stand here, today, and see the figures coming up on that screen... What do you want me to say? I'll say anything"
"Together, we have today changed the landscape of European politics. No matter how this night ends, we have changed it," Falkvinge said. "This feels wonderful. The citizens have understood it's time to make a difference. The older politicians have taken apart young peoples' lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that the authorities' mass-surveillance," he added.

Pirate Party Wins and Enters The European Parliament (Thanks, Benno!)

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PurpleFlagship

Damn, many apologies. The ones dementing the two observers are the officials at the EuroParl office in Sweden. My opinion on the National Election Authority still stands, they just aren’t responsible for this particular snafu.
LennStar

Yeah! ;)

seats, sizes etc. http://www.elections2009-results.eu/en/index_en.html

official swedish site: http://www.val.se/val/ep2009/valnatt/rike/index.html
wedish only, but the PP is not hard to find ;)
LennStar

addition:
in the article, you may wonder “We have fulfilled our minimal goal of 0,5%. Now we can start up for real!â€”
Thats because from 0,5% on you get money up to half of your Partys income from the state as a help. “Parteienfinanzierung”
strumpet windsock

Thanks for the info Ranryu, I appreciate it.

…and anonymous, settle down. I was asking a fair question, not making accusations.

And this matter is serious enough that I think these questions SHOULD be asked so it can be clarified. The thought didn’t even occur to me until I heard about the gains made by ultra-rightists.

I am completely in favour of a voice for net and copyright freedom, but that doesn’t absolve the party from scrutiny or fair criticism. So long as the party is not influenced by Carl LundstrÃ¶m’s personal views I am happy that they got elected.

And I guess we’ll find out where they stand when they start voting.
Anonymous

DANEGELD @6
The Pirate Party UK is being set up now, the manifesto and stuff is being refined and everything else being sorted out before registration.

pirateparty.org.uk
annoyingmouse

Unfortunately as #6 mentioned above, we in Britain have little to celebrate or be proud of as two members of the fascists were elected. Seeing that holocaust denying, racist, xenophobic, Hitler/Mosely wannabe, piece of scum Griffin attempt to mimic Churchill in celebration photos was sickening and words really can’t describe how ashamed I am of this country right now. If only I could speak Swedish… would you guys let me in?
Pantograph

I for one welcome our new Pirate overlords, and would have voted for them if I could.

And when those pesky Somalians take to the high seas again, newspapers will lead with the inevitable headline:

PIRATE PARTY VOTES FOR STRONGER EU ACTION AGAINST PIRACY
hckling

ANNOYINGMOUSE: You’d be more than welcome ;)
Anonymous

I’m with #6.

It’s disappointing that BB is so caught up in the infinitesimal gains by the PP that they’ve chosen to discount the fact that the right-wing not only dominated most of the European elections–pretty much ensuring more disgusting pro-copyright and anti-privacy laws get passed–but that fringe groups like the BNP have an official voice in the government that makes copyright law look like small fry in comparison.
pomegranate

Cory, going by my memory and a site search for “European Parliament”, this is the first time you’ve covered the election. Any reason considering how much coverage you give to UK and European politics otherwise? Just curious.
Cory Doctorow

Search for “european election” instead.
Robert

To Parrrrrrrrliament for the Pirate Parrrrrrty.
strumpet windsock

Not to put a damper on this story, but I wonder if the Pirate Party reps might not be that fat removed from the fascists.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/26/pirate_bay_neo_nazi/

When I read this story I started searching Pirate Bay for information to do with the Holocaust (the movie Shoah, for example) and got back some surprising results.

Good that they are for copyright freedom, but will they be influenced by the beliefs of the pirate bay’s banker?
strumpet windsock

Also wondering if neonazis in Sweden had anything to do with their election results (I sure hope not).
Apreche

I don’t know much about these elections or the European Parliament. However, I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff through the webs about Neo-Nazis and other fringe groups winning seats.

That leads me to think that either there are so many seats going around that these people can win seats, or that the voter turnout is so low, that vocal minorities win out.

It’s good to see some legitimacy to the Pirate Party, but these kinds of things make me question how meaningful it really is.
annoyingmouse

Off topic (although reading these comments not too far OT) but for people in the UK concerned with the election results I thought I’d point to http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/ a site that sadly I’ve only come across today. Worth a visit.
nerak

where’s the American Pirate Party???
Anonymous

@Strumpet Windsock

The major flaw in what you’re suggesting is that while the Pirate Party came into being as a result of actions taken against TPB and other such sites, there are no official ties between the two. Nice try at making controversy where none exists, though.
Anonymous

@18: Nah, Rick Falkvinge, the party leader, is certainly leaning heavily to the right himself as I understand it, but more in a radical liberal manner; I don’t think there’s even a hint of brown in his blue convictions. (I remember reading some interview where he described himself as a capitalist promoting on-line communism).
Tom Neff

One seat was enough – they can make as many copies as they need.
Takuan

ARRRR!
Anonymous

anyone know how many seats were up for election total? Just curious.
Anonymous

They got 1 spot, not 2, according to all major swedish news sites..
Ranryu

There aren’t even any inofficial ties between the Pirate Party and Pirate Bay. None of the same people are involved. One of the guys behind Pirate Bay is a member of the Green Party. The other two aren’t very politically interested, although one of them is reported as planning to vote for the Pirate Party.

Neither was there any connection between the formation of the Pirate Party and the legal action against Pirate Bay. This is easily verified by just checking the timeline. The party was registered at the Election Authority in February 2006. The first raid against Pirate Bay took place in May 2006.
PurpleFlagship

It’s a good day to be a pirate! First order of the day, find a group. Second, take down the telecom package!
danegeld

The Pirate Party should run in the UK, too. Hell, BoingBoing should run in the European elections. We need a good cause to soak up the protest vote, in a way that we won’t cause lasting harm.

The British National Party in England won two seats during the “EuroParl” elections – Deprived of a vote for soma, hundreds of thousands of people chose fascism.(!)

Nick Robinson from the Beta Broadcasting Corporation described this as “double-plus ungood”.
jackie31337

Anonymous @4: According to the TorrentFreak article, they are guaranteed one seat, and may gain a second one:

“Sweden has 20 seats, but until the Lisbon treaty passes only 18 with voting rights. This means that the Pirate Party will have 2 seats.”
PurpleFlagship

@4 & 7 Theres some controversy surrounding the 19th and 20th observer seats. Our national election officials claim they have received no instructions that they are to elect two observers although there has already been lengthy discussions about them on the web and elsewhere. Giving a bunch of people full EU MP pay with no voting rights tend to spark discussions.

The election authority in Sweden on the other hand aren’t known for their clear understanding of laws and rules. So we will have to wait a while for a final decision on the 19th and 20th seats.