Pirate Party loses Swedish seats, gains a German one

With the EU election results in and the British press going gaga over UKIP's stomping, its also worth taking note of how the Pirate Parties of the world did. More took part in this election than ever before, but despite an impressive turnout across the continent, the pirates now have one less seat in parliament than they had before.

With just 2.2 per cent of the vote in Sweden, where the Pirate Party movement started, the two seats held by pirate politicians have been lost, as a much higher threshold was required. This is down from 7.1 per cent in 2009, suggesting a real drop off in support.

The silver lining however, is that in Germany, with 1.4 per cent of the vote, Pirate Party head Julia Reda will get a seat in the EU parliament, making her the only pirate to cross the threshold. It was a close run thing elsewhere though, with Czech Republic politicians losing out by just .2 per cent.

PPUK only contested the North West, receiving 0.5 per cent of the vote

In other countries too, like Luxembourge, where almost five per cent of voters gave the thumbs up to the pirates, funding will be given by the European Parliament to help future campaigns, giving European pirates a bit more of a voice at least.

In the UK, the Pirate Party was only contesting a seat in the North West, with the candidate ultimately receiving just over 8,500 votes, equalling 0.5 per cent of all those cast. Leader of the Pirate Party UK, Loz Kaye said:
“Pirates continue to be represented in the European Parliament. This is more important now than ever. We've shown that our voice is crucial to protect our rights and ensure that key issues, especially those related to the digital world, are recognised and addressed. There will be many new challenges ahead at the European level and I'm happy we will be there to meet them. However, losing the experience of Christian Engström and Amelia Andersdotter from Sweden is a real blow.

“We have so much to offer and will rebuild the broken trust in politics across this continent. We need to be honest, we are no longer the radical new kid on the block. We need to build a broader movement and continue to focus on elections.”

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KitGuru Says: It's not the greatest results for the Pirate Parties of the world, especially in Sweden, but at least a pirate is still present in Brussels, giving some insight into what's going on, even if her influence will be very limited.

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