Pirates In Parliament

Sweden’s Pirate Party is proving so popular with voters that it’s won a seat in the European Parliament.

It polled 7.1 percent of the country’s vote in the June 7 elections, well above the 4 percent threshold needed for a seat.

“We have just written political history,” said Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge, claiming no other political group has so many followers younger than 30 years old.

“That’s building the future of liberties,” he said. The Pirate Party (or Piratpartiet) was formed at the beginning of 2006 with a limited agenda based on reforming the copyright laws regarding copyright, strengthening the right to privacy, both on the Internet and in everyday life, and the transparency of state administration.

It has aspirations to be a global player, but has not gained traction outside of Sweden. The party was also on the German ballot paper in the latest Euro vote, but only managed to get 0.9 percent of the vote – still enough to cross the 0.5 percent threshold a political party needs to get government funding.

The Swedish party’s success may have been helped by the recent Pirate Bay trial, which left four of the people behind the illegal file-sharing site facing year-long jail sentences and collectively on the hook for 30 million kronor ($3.9 million) in damages.