The European Parliament elections just came and went, and yeah it's a really big deal because the EU is primed for WORLD GLOBAL DOMINATION as soon as they defeat the ungodly Snake menace on our airlines, but I digress. The point I want to make is that Sweden voted 7 percent for their very own Pirate Party.
They're actually a political group fighting for file sharing, copyright reform, government transparency (Sunshine Laws of FOIA stuff) and increased right to privacy. But they want to be pirates. In a good way. :)
The Swedish Pirates are a relatively new group (2006?) but are already the third largest party in Sweden... albeit at .63 percent of the vote in 2006. You need 4 percent to secure a seat in Sweden's national government. But today is 2009, and with that 7 percent turnout the Pirates have 2 seats in the EU.
The big news is how the Pirate Party plays for the up-and-coming generation - the 18-to-29 group - and there the Pirates have a decent 21 percent fanbase. Mostly because the issues they support (file sharing above all) are issues directly affecting youths who grew up with music and video downloading.
These Pirates could well surpass the now stodgy Loony Parties for political coolness. Avast!
Wonder if we can start a Pirate Party here in the U.S. We *do* need a viable third party what with the Republicans committing ritual self-immolation...
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