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EU Parliament Elections
Topic Started: Jun 9 2009, 07:08 PM (306 Views)
United States [Sel]
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I have not really been following it, but this caught my eye:

Quote:
 
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Sweden's Pirate Party, striking a chord with voters who want more free content on the Internet, won a seat in the European Parliament, early results showed Sunday.

The Pirate Party captured 7.1 percent of votes in Sweden in the Europe-wide ballot, enough to give it a single seat. The party wants to deregulate copyright, abolish the patent system and reduce surveillance on the Internet.

"This is fantastic!" Christian Engstrom, the party's top candidate, told Reuters. "This shows that there are a lot of people who think that personal integrity is important and that it matters that we deal with the Internet and the new information society in the right way."

Previously an obscure group of single-issue activists, the party enjoyed a jump in popularity after the conviction in April of four men behind The Pirate Bay, one of the world's biggest free file-sharing website.

The case cast a spotlight on the issue of internet file-sharing, a technique used to download movies, music and other content. The defendants have called for a retrial.

Despite the similar names, the party and the website are not linked. The party was founded in 2006 and contested a Swedish general election that year, but received less than one percent of the vote.

Engstrom credited the party's appeal to young voters for its success. "We are very strong among those under 30. They are the ones who understand the new world the best. And they have now signaled they don't like how the big parties deal with these issues."

The Pirate Party will take up one of Sweden's 18 seats in the 785-seat parliament. "We will use all of our strength to defend personal integrity and our civil rights," Engstrom said.


My theory is that people see the EU elections as somewhat of a joke and are more inclined to support non-mainstream parties. Then again, PP has been gaining a lot of support the past two years in Sweden, especially since the raid against The Pirate Bay. The next elections in Sweden are next year. The threshold to gain seats is 4% and the PP got 7% or so, so even with a decline due to national elections, they could be in the next Parliament and become the first Internet party to win seats in a national legislature.

I must say I strongly support them. Unfortunately, there is little hope of success here because of our corrupt single-member constituency system of electing almost everything. If we had proportional representation, I think a properly organize Pirate Party would gain a number of seats in the US.




In other news, from what I know, the Green and Nationalist parties gained seats across the Union.
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zzskye
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Gotta love the PP :D

Yeah, well, as far as I know off, Sweden is the only country they've really taken off... Norwegian Pirate Party (Yours truly is a proud member) is still below the limit for even being a recognized political party.

But it's nice to see a strike for freedom on the internet, with all the BS that have been done lately, like IPRED in Sweden, the new 'three-strikes' law in France and the law firm that has governmental approval to conduct surveillance without a court order in Norway...
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zzporrsche
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I actually did some volunteer work for them here in Stockholm :D I am a member of the Finnish Pirate Party and this is very good news, i firmly believe the swedish party will make it into parliment in 15 months, there are several issues pending that will keep interest up, and the results of the recent elections will show to the public that this is not a just for fun-thing.

On a sidenote: we do not want to abolish the patentsystem, just reform it. And the copyright is to be deregulated for personal use, not commercial.
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zzBugs
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Israel [Sel Appa
 
,09 Jun 2009 19.08.44] My theory is that people see the EU elections as somewhat of a joke and are more inclined to support non-mainstream parties.

I must say I strongly support them. Unfortunately, there is little hope of success here because of our corrupt single-member constituency system of electing almost everything. If we had proportional representation, I think a properly organize Pirate Party would gain a number of seats in the US.




In other news, from what I know, the Green and Nationalist parties gained seats across the Union.

My theory is that the EU is a joke. Lol.

I'm actually open to this concept of internet freedom. It's part of the vanguard, for freedom of speech (as much as I hate it sometimes). I need to make only the point in case of China. I was watching this bit about China, and the Tank Man, and how if you google searched it there, you would not get that infamous unknown man standing in front of a tank.

This PP should consider fighting for something along the lines that a corporation should not have to give over information of online users to local law enforcement without probable cause or lack of any reason at all. That comment was prompted by this:

http://www.out-law.com/page-8359
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/16/yahoo.congress/index.html

Which was also discussed on that show. Why should a corporation have to provide information to local law enforcement without being told what it was for.

There should be one of these PP's in China...
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zzskylar
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The EU owns your ass, Bugs.

And on that whole censorship thing...
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Schwerpunkt
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I'm at a loss as to why a pirate party grabs your attention, but Britain's own homegrown neo-fascists getting two seats doesn't.
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zzskylar
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,10 Jun 2009 20.06.01] I'm at a loss as to why a pirate party grabs your attention, but Britain's own homegrown neo-fascists getting two seats doesn't.

I pointed it out first! :P I love it how today during PMQs pretty much all of the House of Commons denounced the BNP.
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Schwerpunkt
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Yeah, well I suppose it was the year of wtf elections. Sweden's Pirate Party, Finland's True Finns, Britain's BNP, Hungary's Jobbik, and Bulgaria's Attack were among those that benefited from this year's election.
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zzBugs
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,10 Jun 2009 19.51.59] The EU owns your ass, Bugs.

And on that whole censorship thing...

Well..as I pointed out. This Pirate Party seems to have a narrowsighted agenda, just like many other agendas in this world. They only care about that ONE little bug that they want to squash. So why can't these guys extend their views and become a more realistic political power. Parties don't win on just one point.

As for the BNP...well. It IS Sel. He'd rather dig up something random as opposed to something about British Nazi's...nothing new right? If you point out that the BNP got two seats, you must also include the dismal voting. Which would then suggest that the EU Parliamentary elections, are seen as a joke by its own people. That or there were no hot button topics which would prompt the people to really care.
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zzskylar
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,10 Jun 2009 20.41.13] Well..as I pointed out. This Pirate Party seems to have a narrowsighted agenda, just like many other agendas in this world. They only care about that ONE little bug that they want to squash. So why can't these guys extend their views and become a more realistic political power. Parties don't win on just one point.

As for the BNP...well. It IS Sel. He'd rather dig up something random as opposed to something about British Nazi's...nothing new right? If you point out that the BNP got two seats, you must also include the dismal voting. Which would then suggest that the EU Parliamentary elections, are seen as a joke by its own people. That or there were no hot button topics which would prompt the people to really care.

Dude, the Netherlands has the "Party for the Animals," which I believe strictly focuses on animal rights. The Pirate Party is similar: one issue is all that matters [apparently]. It's no different from any special interest group.

Oh, and relative to usual turnouts for elections in EU nations, US elections are seen as a joke by its own people. Nobody really cares. Oh, and yeah, it is Sel. I'm kinda surprised that he hasn't set off on another Israel-is-always-right tirade right about now. ;)
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Schwerpunkt
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EU electoral turnout's never been really comparable to national turnout on account of the fact that, dun dun dun, people are more in tune with their own tricolour (or other type of flag) than the blue field and gold stars.

Slovenia's turnout was much worse, and they elected no far right wing groups. Poland's turnout was considerably worse, and while they did have a clearly right-wing party take seats, it's a much more moderated and mainstream right-wing party. The Dutch turnout was comparable and they had no far right parties take a seat.

While Jobbik and Attack are definitely far-right, they don't seem to actively and aggressively preach hate like the BNP does (though they're far from pleasant). One seat is a mistake. Two isn't.
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zzporrsche
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,11 Jun 2009 02.41.13] Well..as I pointed out. This Pirate Party seems to have a narrowsighted agenda, just like many other agendas in this world. They only care about that ONE little bug that they want to squash. So why can't these guys extend their views and become a more realistic political power. Parties don't win on just one point.

Most parties started out as a single-issue party. Remember the liberals in the late 1800s, and the Green parties emerging in the late 70s, these are all parties with full agendas today. And i think the PP will evolve like that too in the future.

Internet freedom is crucial. But in europe no party takes the questions seriously at all. There is a real need for us.

And indeed it is a sad day where the true finns got a mandate. They hate Åland...
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zzmorty
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I was very pleased with the results in some areas, but upset with others. On the one hand, UKIP was able to grab 2nd, which is awesome. On the other hand, the Independence/Democracy group looks like it isn't going to survive, unless it gets some serious recruitment. A shame. The victory of the Pirate Party was excellent as well, even if they are single-issue, it's an important issue and they are definitely on the right side of it (if perhaps not as extreme as I'd like them to be).
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Mexico (Hubris)
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I was pleased to see they gained popularity.

At the same time, I was displeased that now on a very political level the ass holes of the world can have a very real chance to humiliate this movement.

Like most attempts at making the world make more sense, this'll fail.

However, in the mean time - Fuck yeah, the Pirate Party!
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United States [Sel]
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Guise it's called proportional representation. Single issue parties proliferate in it.
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Mexico (Hubris)
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I don't think a single man can convince the entire EU Parliament to push for drastic change.

Sure, he could make out the points very well - and have it spoken on a professional, political, and serious level.. but he could have such a mockery made of him and the belief of free copyrights.

I hope it could change things for the better, but that'd only be in the long run for now.

In the mean time - I still use TPB like a fiend.
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Russia (X)
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Pirate Party! The pirate party might evolve into a freedom-oriented party, I hope so anyways. Walking towards anarchy Sel :P
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zzskylar
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,12 Jun 2009 15.20.19] Walking towards anarchy Sel :P

I lol'd.
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Russia (X)
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Go-go-go commune time?
I've got bags of military knowledge, Sel, I'll trade for some of your eccentric-ism.
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