O Partido Pirata Sueco levou duas cadeiras (uma cadeira atual e, caso o Tratado de Lisboa seja aprovado, duas), com 7,1% dos votos e aprox. 200 mil votos e, na Alemanha, o Partido Pirata Local conseguiu 1% dos votos, não foi suficiente para o Parlamento mas ainda assim foi uma votação expressiva.
Via TorrentFreak:
Pirate Party Wins and Enters The European Parliament
Written by Ernesto on June 07, 2009The Pirate Party has won a huge victory in the Swedish elections and is marching on to Brussels. After months of campaigning against well established parties, the Pirate Party has gathered enough votes to be guaranteed a seat in the European Parliament.
When the Swedish Pirate Party was founded in early 2006, the majority of the mainstream press were skeptical, with some simply laughing it away. But they were wrong to dismiss this political movement out of hand. Today, the Pirate Party accomplished what some believed to be the impossible, by securing a seat in the European Parliament.
With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes, beating several established parties. This means that the Pirate Party will get at least one, but most likely two of the 18 (+2) available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.
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.
Rick Falkvinge celebrating tonight’s election win
The turnout at the elections is 43 percent, a little higher than the at the 2004 elections. This would mean that roughly 200,000 Swedes have voted for the Pirate Party. This is a huge increase compared to the national elections of 2006 where the party got 34,918 votes.
Both national and international press have gathered in Stockholm where the Pirate Party is celebrating its landmark victory.
Falkvinge answering questions
At least partially, The Pirate Party puts its increased popularity down to harsh copyright laws and the recent conviction of the people behind The Pirate Bay. After the Pirate Bay verdict, Pirate Party membership more than tripled and they now have over 48,000 registered members, more than the total number of votes they received in 2006.
With their presence in Brussels, the Pirate Party hopes to reduce the abuses of power and copyright at the hands of the entertainment industries, and make those activities illegal instead. On the other hand they hope to legalize file-sharing for personal use.
Arrrr
“It’s great fun to be a pirate right now”, Christian Engström, Vice Chairman of the Pirate Party told the press when he arrived.
Update: 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.
Update: In Germany the Pirate Party got approximately 1 percent of the votes, not enough for a seat in the European Parliament. Andreas Popp, lead candidate for the German Pirate Party is pleased and told TorrentFreak: “This was the first time, we ran for the European elections. And although many voters have hardly known us, we got a great result. This shows, that many citizens identify themselves with our goals. I want to thank all people who supported us, we could not have done that without them. We have fulfilled our minimal goal of 0,5%. Now we can start up for real!”
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Update 1:
Via TorrentFreak:
How Pirates Shook European Politics
Written by Ernesto on June 08, 2009With 7.1 percent of the vote, the Swedish Pirate Party has shocked its critics and secured a seat in the European Parliament. The Pirates received more votes from those under 30 than any other party in the European elections yesterday, and this was celebrated with pints of rum and loads of pirate chants.
Late Sunday night, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt congratulated the Pirate Party on their unprecedented win at the European elections.
The Pirate Party is seen a serious competitor in Swedish politics now, a fact underscored by the Prime Minister who said that his own party will formulate a clear policy regarding net integrity and copyright issues in preparation for the Swedish national elections in September 2010.
A few hours earlier, the party dinner had come to a close with volunteers and members singing “The Broadband Hymn”. They had fittingly gathered at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and as Swedish TV published the exit polls results indicating that the Pirate Party would get around 7% of the votes, wild cheers broke out. Party leader Rick Falkvinge took to the stage.
“Together we have today re-shaped the political map in Europe,” he said. “Right now, Europe is watching what is happening here and politicians everywhere are scrambling to understand our issues. They now know that the party that has information-political perspectives can win many votes.”
And yes, it did. 214,313 of them in Sweden on Sunday. 7.1 percent of the vote and a guarantee of at least one seat in the European Parliament.
The Pirate Party was the most popular party among voters under 30 years of age. Taking into account that Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt’s Moderate Party is the most popular party among voters over 65 years of age, one can understand why Reinfeldt later in the evening said he will sit down with the Moderate Youth leader Niklas Wykman - a critic of the surveillance legislation and anti-filesharing laws - to discuss Internet issues.
“We’ll share files in Brussels!” a young man shouted as he ran to the bar at election night. Meanwhile, journalists from all over Europe who had flown in to cover the unique occasion tried to get their piece of party leader Rick Falkvinge and vice chairman Christian Engström.
Rick Falkvinge and Christian Engström
The latter, who will probably take the party’s seat in the EU parliament, held a short speech in which he thanked all the volunteers. The Pirate Party stays true to its net-roots and has no formal organization. Anyone who thinks he or she can contribute is welcome to do so simply by posting on the forum and going out and doing it. No formal decisions on campaigning are taken and the thousands of party ballots have been distributed to voting centers simply by someone living close and wanting to play their part.
“It’s amazing that it worked. I never thought it would,” Engström joked.
A journalist from Swedish radio broke into the celebrations with a question for party founder Rick Falkvinge on how he felt. With champagne in his hand and pride in his eyes, he just smiled: “How does it feel to write history? It feels pretty damn good.”
Today, after a night spent drinking rum and chanting seafarer standards, the pirates woke up finding themselves on the front pages of the Swedish newspapers. Pirates waving Jolly Rogers. Pirates taking celebratory late night dips in fountains. Pirates laughing. Pirates hugging. And there is consensus among the op-eds and political pundits on how it could happen: Enthusiasm paid off.
The two large parties in Sweden, the Social Democrats and the Moderate Party, are heavily criticized because of their lack of engagement in the European. Meanwhile, the Green Party (which also had a great election with 10.9%) and the Pirate Party positioned themselves on their respective expert issues and built a lot of support from the base.
When the EU parliament meets after summer, there will be at least one pirate in the midst of European parliament. If the Lisbon treaty is voted through, there can be two. It may not seem a lot in order to make a difference, but as a blogger put it: One pirate can hijack a whole ship.
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Update 2:
Curioso nesta notícia do Estadão é o comentário de que o Partido tem apenas uma causa. Lastimável o desconhecimento completo da grande mídia do que cerca a questão da liberdade e neutralidade da internet, que engloba não só a internet em si como a mais básica noção de liberdade civil e respeito à dignidade humana e à privacidade.
O Partido Pirata Sueco não se limita a defender a "pirataria" e o direito a baixar livremente material fonográfico e afins, defende também a liberdade plena dos indivíduos, seja na internet ou na "vida real", defende a privacidade, a liberdade, a inviolabilidade da pessoa humana, enfim, os Direitos Humanos como um todo.
Ainda além da internet, o Partido se situação na defesa da quebra das arcaicas leis de Copyright, buscando soluções alternativas e abertas possibilitando ainda uma maior troca cultural, um maior acesso à cultura por parte da população. Através da quebra do Copyright e da reformulação de suas bases dá-se preferência ao acesso universal à cultura, acesso irrestrito ao que é produzido no mundo, seja na música, no cinema, na literatura e etc. busca-se uma universalização do direito à cultura, ao entretenimento e ao mesmo tempo força uma inovação, uma modernização da indústria e adaptação ao século XXI.
Via Estadão:
Partido pró-pirataria na web ganha vaga no Parlamento da UE
Legenda que luta pela desregulamentação dos direitos autorais e das patentes consegue 7,1% dos votos
Reuters
ESTOCOLMO - O Partido Pirata sueco, ecoando um coro de eleitores que desejam mais conteúdo livre na Internet, ganhou uma cadeira no parlamento europeu, mostraram os primeiros resultados confirmados nesta segunda-feira, 8. A legenda conseguiu 7,1% dos votos na Suécia no total de votos de toda a Europa, o suficiente para ganhar um único assento. O partido quer a desregulamentação dos direitos autorais, abolindo o sistema de patente e reduzindo a vigilância na web."Isto é fantástico", disse à Reuters o principal candidato do partido, Chrisitian Engstrom. "Isto mostra que há muitas pessoas que pensam que a integridade pessoal é importante e que importa que lidemos com a Internet e com a nova sociedade da informação da maneira certa."
Previamente um grupo obscuro de ativistas de causa única, o partido ganhou um salto na popularidade após a condenação de quatro homens em abril pela Pirate Bay, um dos maiores sites de compartilhamento de arquivos do mundo. Apesar dos nomes semelhantes, o partido e o site não têm nenhuma relação. O partido foi criado em 2006 e discutia uma eleição geral sueca aquele ano, mas recebeu menos de 1% dos votos.
Engstrom credita o sucesso do partido à simpatia de jovens eleitores. "Nós somos muito fortes entre aqueles que têm menos de 30 anos. Eles são quem entendem o melhor do novo mundo. E agora eles sinalizaram que não gostam de como os grandes partidos lidam com estas questões."
O Partido Pirata terá uma das 18 cadeiras da Suécia, entre os 785 assentos do parlamento. "Nós usaremos toda a nossa força para defender a integridade pessoal e nossos direitos civis", disse Engstrom.
