Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09STOCKHOLM355
2009-06-10 13:42:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Stockholm
Cable title:  

AARGH! SWEDISH PIRATES SET SAIL FOR BRUSSELS

Tags:  PGOV PINR PREL ECON KIPR SW 
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DE RUEHSM #0355/01 1611342
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 101342Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4411
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STOCKHOLM 000355 

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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL ECON KIPR SW
SUBJECT: AARGH! SWEDISH PIRATES SET SAIL FOR BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 STOCKHOLM 000355

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DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USTR FOR DAVID WEINER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR PREL ECON KIPR SW
SUBJECT: AARGH! SWEDISH PIRATES SET SAIL FOR BRUSSELS


1. Summary and Comment: Sweden's two largest political parties, the
ruling Moderates and opposition Social Democrats, saw little change
over their 2004 levels of support in the June 7 European Parliament
(EP) election here. Instead, the Greens and the pro-EU Liberal
Party were the big winners -- along with the new Pirate Party, which
found support from young voters unhappy with the government's
decision to shut down The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing bit torrent
site that had become a target of the Motion Picture Association of
America (and USTR). The anti-EU Left Party, on the other hand,
suffered catastrophic losses. Overall, voter turnout was up in the
month before Sweden takes over the rotating Presidency of the
Council of the European Union, but at 43.8% still far below the
regular 80% turnout for national elections. Comment: The EP
election outcome has little predictive power for next year's
parliamentary elections, given the self-selecting nature of those
willing to go out and vote for Members of the European Parliament
(MEPs). Perhaps the main lesson for the larger parties relates to
the need to court the youth vote in more effective ways. End
Summary and Comment.

The Results
--------------


2. Sweden's EP election was a bit disappointing for the two largest
parties, the Moderates (18.8% of the vote and 4 MEP seats) and the
Social Democrats (24.6% and five seats). Although both parties
matched the figures received in 2004, they did not manage any gains
despite active campaigning. Rather, the Greens (10.9% and two
seats) and the Liberal Party (13.6% and three seats) were the big
winners. The Left Party suffered disastrous defeats; the party
dropped to 5.6%, compared to 12.8% in 2004, and now has one seat.
The Centre Party (5.5% and one seat) and the Christian Democrats
(4.7% and one seat),both part of the four-party ruling coalition,
performed slightly worse than in 2004, though both surpassed the 4%
threshold necessary to qualify for a seat. The elections attracted
more voters than in 2004, with turnout up 6.7% to 43.8%,
differentiating Sweden from other Member States' downward trend.

Victory for the Pirate Party

--------------


3. The big winner was the Pirate Party -- which campaigned on
reformation of copyright and patent law and opposition to a
wiretapping law proposed by the Swedish security services. The
Pirates secured a whopping 7.1% and one seat in Parliament. The
party, founded in January 2006, attracted young voters angry over
the guilty verdict in the Pirate Bay trial, the unpopular EU Ipred
directive, and new national laws criminalizing file sharing and
authorizing monitoring of emails. The party has not yet announced
what EP party group it would like to belong to, and the current
thinking espoused by Pirates is that the classic political
right-left scale is outdated. Rather, the Pirates see themselves as
an historic movement analogous to working-class and the green
movements. The party is now looking to negotiate with both the
liberal ALDE group and the Greens/EFA group.


4. A side effect of the Pirates' success is that it most likely
reduced the chances for the far-right nationalist Sweden Democrats
to gain representation in the EP. The Pirates have some of the same
voter base -- young men with mistrust for politicians. Although the
Sweden Democrats tripled their results to 3.3%, up from 1.1% in
2004, they remain below the threshold for representation in either
the EP or Swedish Parliament. In any case, the Pirate's landslide
among younger voters caught the attention of the larger parties, our
contacts tell us, who are now scrambling to come up with policies to
woo the youth back to the mainstream.

Personalities Rule
--------------


5. Over all, the four party governing center-right Alliance won
with 42.6% of vote and nine seats over the leftist opposition with
41.1% and eight seats. For what was essentially a mid-term election
in Sweden, the continued strong showing for the ruling coalition
suggests to some of our contacts no loss of momentum going into next
year's general elections. Others note that parties with clear and
positive EU policies, like the Greens and the Liberals, did
surprisingly well, while the euro-skeptics suffered. But those who
could be bothered to vote in EP elections on the first sunny day in
several weeks were likely a self-selecting group with pro-EU views,
not necessarily representative of the wider Swedish public.


6. Results of the preference vote - where voters can mark the
candidate they would prefer to be elected - came out June 10.
Strong and charismatic personalities have overtaken the top
candidates proposed by each of the parties. To be elected on a
total number of preference votes, a candidate must have received at
least 5% of the votes cast for the party. Alf Svensson, former
leader of the Christian Democrats, and Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, the
wife of Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, were nominated low on their
respective parties' lists but will now claim seats in parliament.

STOCKHOLM 00000355 002 OF 002



HILTON