Those of you in Euroland are probably sick of hearing about the European elections, especially because, as I learned in college, something like two dozen people in the whole of Europe even bother to vote. (Democracy deficit!) No matter, because it looks like some people in Sweden voted for the Pirate Party, whose raison d’être is to reform copyright law, patents, etc. In fact, enough people voted for the Piratpartiet to give it two seats in the European Parliament. (There’s 736 seats in the European Parliamnet.) Hey, it’s a start!
The Pirate Party was on track to receive some 8.2 percent of the vote. For comparison’s sake, the Social Democrats, a major party there, received 27.9 percent.
I don’t blame you if you found the above sentences boring—I majored in that nonsense!
And did you know that there’s a Pirate Party here in the U.S.? Why haven’t we seen in profiled in the New York Times or Washington Post or Vanity Fair? I blame The Man.
I blame Digg. I normally go there to hear stuff like this, but thanks for the heads up on the U.S. Pirate Party!
Actually, the election still has some 15 minutes to go (it closes at 21.00 CET), the numbers you are referring to are only preliminary.
Now it’s finished except a few postal votes that will be counted in the following days. We got 7.1% and can send two pirates to EP. One with full status and one as an observer.
Arrrr!