The Euro Elections: Forget UKIP, vote pirate

Election watchers are predicting a boom for Britain’s minor parties in this thursday's June 4 European election,  as grumpy voters punish the big boys for their lavish expenses. Yet even as they stand to make minor breakthroughs in the UK, the likes of UKIP and the BNP may still have cause to gaze jealously across the North Sea, where a rather different upstart is threatening to take over the ship of state. In Sweden, a force known as the Pirate party had (at the time of writing) grown to become the country’s third largest political organisation by membership.



Its inspiration? The successful prosecution of file-sharing site Pirate Bay, for the illegal distribution of millions of films, albums and television programmes. With 45,000 members and counting, the Pirate party are campaigning on a simple platform: “to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected.”

They seem likely to win at least one seat in the European parliament—provided, Pirate party leader Rick Falkvinge notes, “we get our ballot papers out.” As a non-established political force, they must supply all 7,000 polling stations in Sweden with their own ballots by hand. It’s typical. We Brits get unsavoury types like Nick Griffin trying to repel boarders, while Scandinavia gets its timbers shivered by freedom-loving campaigners for citizens’ rights. It must be something in the water.

This diary item also appears in the June edition of Prospect. For subscriptions, please see our website.