Sweden's Pirate Party has won entry to the European Parliament in Brussels in elections held Sunday.
The Pirate Party gained 7 percent of the Swedish votes and secured at least one of the 18 seats that Sweden holds in the parliament.
"Citizens have understood that it's time to pull the fist out of the pocket and that you can make a difference," Rick Falkvinge, leader and founder of the party, told the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, after the result of the elections were revealed. "We don't accept to be bugged by the government. People start to understand that the government is not always good."
The Pirate Party is focused on three main goals: "to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens' rights to privacy are respected."
Source: Mises Blog.
Also making the front page of Drudge is the ascension of the Swedish file-sharing Pirate Party (PP) to Brussels, with 7.1 percent of the vote, enough to guarantee a single seat. Not mentioned in the English language accounts of their victory is the party's strong libertarian streak. Party leader Rick Falkvinge told the Stockholm daily SvD, in reference to a recent proposal that would massively expand the state's ability to monitor electronic communications, that "We don't accept the state's wiretapping. People should understand that the state is not always on the side of good." Perhaps an obvious point, but a sentiment just short of revolutionary in Swedish politics. Even more contronversial was Falkvinge's declaration, in an interview with the magazine Fokus, that he considers himself "an ultra-capitalist," a sentiment so alarming that state television believed it worthy of top billing on its website.
Source: Reason Hit & Run.
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