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Lex Orwell: How They Voted

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STOCKHOLM (Radsoft) -- 143 voted 'ja', 138 voted 'nej', 1 refrained from voting - and 67 weren't even there. Lex Orwell has passed and Sweden is now one step closer to entering the Orwellian Age as one of its most courageous pioneers.

Special thanks must be given to those sixty seven ministers of parliament who couldn't even show up. Had only five of them showed up and voted against Sweden would today still be a free country.

Both Fredrick Federley and Annie Johansson who yesterday opposed the proposal have today voted in its favour. Birgitta Ohlsson of the Liberal Party refrained from voting.

Voting Results

Camilla Lindberg was the only MP who dared break ranks on the vote. She's already received over 140 flower bouquets. And that's style. Birgitta Ohlsson also of the Liberal Party refrained from voting. That's almost as good. Maybe she should get a box of chocolates.

Camilla's mail address is camilla.lundberg[at]riksdagen[dot]se. Birgitta's is birgitta.ohlsson[at]riksdagen[dot]se.

Swedish MP Mail Address Format

All Swedish MP mail addresses follow the same format.

firstname.lastname[at]riksdagen[dot]se

[Non-ASCII characters are replaced with their obvious ASCII relative. There are only three. å → a; ä → a; ö → o. Ed.]

So if you feel so inclined: pick a name or two and drop them a line.

Didn't Bother Showing Up

The following supposed representatives of the people didn't bother even showing up for the vote. They deserve special consideration.

34 of those not present belonged to opposition parties: the Greens, the Leftists, and the Social Democrats. 33 naturally were from parties that would have supported the proposal. Were all 67 to vote - and according to party lines - the opposition would therefore have gained one vote.

[Had those who expressed opposition the day before continued to express opposition through their vote the proposal would not have passed. Ed.]

Didn't Vote: Greens (Miljöpartiet)

The Greens are aligned with the Social Democrats and the Leftists. They are therefore in opposition. The opposition voted categorically against the proposal. The following MPs from the Greens didn't even bother showing up to vote.

Tina Ehn, Gunvor G Ericson, Peter Eriksson, Ulf Holm, Karin Svensson Smith, Maria Wetterstrand.

Didn't Vote: Social Democrats

The Social Democrats are the largest opposition party. They were the previous government and may be the next one as well. 25 Social Democrat MPs didn't bother showing up for the vote.

Karl Gustav Abramsson, Carina Adolfsson Elgestam, Urban Ahlin, Phia Andersson, Thomas Bodström, Claes-Göran Brandin, Gunilla Carlsson, Birgitta Eriksson, Peter Jeppsson, Håkan Juholt, Åsa Lindestam, Pia Nilsson, Pär Nuder, Ronny Olander, Christina Oskarsson, Sven-Erik Österberg, Leif Pettersson, Britta Rådström, Mona Sahlin, Gunnar Sandberg, Hans Stenberg, Maria Stenberg, Olle Thorell, Siw Wittgren-Ahl, Maryam Yazdanfar.

Notes on the above: Thomas Bodström is the former minister of justice who was accused of pushing on the harassment of The Pirate Bay. He's also been very vocal in his opposition to Lex Orwell. If he'd bothered to voice this opposition in the vote things might have been different. Also: Mona Sahlin is today head of the Social Democrats and being groomed as Sweden's next prime minister. One would think she would put duty to her country higher so she too could vote against Lex Orwell - but one would be wrong.

Didn't Vote: Leftists

The Leftists have been most vocal in their opposition to Lex Orwell and have in fact promised if they are part of a new Social Democrat coalition government they will push to have Lex Orwell repealed. But had they just showed up to vote they might not find themselves having to make such promises in the first place.

Rossana Dinamarca, Lena Olsson, Peter Pedersen.

Close

Remember: this was a close vote. The proposal won by only five (5) votes. It was also a defining moment in not only Swedish but also in international Internet history. And yet a full one fifth of the Swedish members of parliament didn't even bother showing up to vote. They didn't give a shit.

Drop a line to Camilla. Thank her for being brave. Drop a line to Birgitta and thank her too.

Then write to the others and tell them what you think of what they did.