Congratulation, pirates

Piratpartiet, the Pirate Party, was last nights sensation with 7,1 percent of the votes in the EU parliament election, giving them one seat in the parliament and giving the more established parties a well deserved slap in the face for not doing their homework (or, rather, doing the entertainment industry's homework - to the letter!) when it comes to issues on privacy, integrity, human- and citizens rights. To be honest I'm surprised that only 7,1 percent of the 43% that actually voted found that these basic rights are more important than employment and welfare issues, subsidies for EU-farmers, the size of a cucumber or anything else for that matter. After all, who bloody cares if they've got a job or not as long as basic human and citizens rights have been taken away from them, one by one?

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Shockingly, the Pirate Party is the only political party in Sweden who want to uphold this article of the UN human rights declaration.

Unfortunately, CNN have - as usual - left a lot to desire in their research, and claim that the Pirate Party are all about legalizing sharing of copyrighted material. I can imagine the election result is quite a surprise for CNN if they really believe a political party could get 7,1 percent of the votes based only on the fact that people want to continue sharing music...

Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt also seems to have problems grasping what this is all about, but agrees to listen to some of his (many) critics:

-Jag ska lyssna på vad Niklas Wykman säger för vi vill vara ett parti som tar frågan om integritet på allvar.

Riiiight, something about not criminalizing an entire generation now, wasn't it? That turned out pretty well. But, of course, you won't hear any real self-criticism from the prime minister:

-Vi ska komma ihåg att Moderaterna är ett regeringsparti. Vi kommer inte att gå till väljarna med enfrågeresonemang och populistiska utgångspunkter, säger Reinfeldt.

You know you're a hardcore politician, and completely out of touch with reality, when you turn questions of important human and citizens rights into "silly, populist reasoning that has no place in a government party". What a pompous ass.