Pirate Party sails to Brussels
by Annika Pham
Sweden’s Pirate Party, which wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and lower the level of surveillance on the Internet, will be heading to the EU Parliament with at least one seat of representation, thanks to 7.4% of Swedish votes from yesterday’s European elections.
Founded in 2006, the Pirate Party saw its membership rise from 14,711 to 36,624 after the four men behind the file-sharing website Pirate Bay were sentenced to one year in prison. According to a survey conducted by Swedish public broadcaster SVT, Pirate Party is particularly popular with young male voters under the age of 30.
Yesterday’s European elections attracted more Swedish people to the polls than in 2004, with an approximate 42.5% voting rate, according to early results. The country’s Social Democrats got around 25.1% of the vote against 18.5% for the Moderates and 11.5% for the Green Party.
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