Swedish Politicians Jealous of PP

They're good for democracy. By Camilla Lindberg.

Get It Try It

I'm confident the Pirate Party will win a seat in the European parliament. And they'll do this thanks to the total inability of the established parties to catch onto social trends in time. The PP have been able to engage people in a way the other parties can only dream of. The involvement and activism shown by the PP is a fresh wind in the political sphere.

The established parties have on all too many issues come too far from the voters. They don't understand anymore what interests and touches the voters. Either that or they simply don't want to listen.

That every politician today like a mantra raps the phrase 'we shall protect personal integrity' is already a victory right there for the PP. But it sounds a bit empty and hardly believable when it comes from people who've only talked about it but never shown any proof of it.

The word 'integrity' has become the new trend word in Swedish politics - unfortunately without a definition of what it really means.

The Pirate Party have been able to channel the unrest and the fury many citizens feel after FRA/Lex Orwell, the telecoms directive, and IPRED. That's clever and should not be underestimated. If the people are uneasy about a law proposal, rightfully or not, it's the politicians' job to listen to that uneasiness.

The attacks the Pirate Party have had to put up with the past few weeks show what jealousy and unrest politicians feel and nothing more. To declare the Pirate Party a single-issue party is principally correct but the greens were like this in the beginning as well. Some single-issue parties disappear as fast as they appear whilst others develop and become multi-issue parties. Which path the Pirate Party choose remains to be seen. That Christian Engström says he in many other issues will vote with his party group only shows he's grasped that no single MP can digest every issue in detail. It's more realistic to admit that a single MP can only support one or a very few number of issues.

To claim it's a high risk project to vote for the PP I don't agree with at all. It's rather a vote of no confidence against the political establishment. No matter how things turn out, they've stirred up Swedish politics in a big way with their enthusiasm. And that's good for democracy. Everything says they'll attract a lot of young voters and even people who normally wouldn't bother voting. Maybe that's a good thing if you agree that a better voter turnout is important?