The pre-voting has started in Sweden,and there are 15 days until election day.

The Swedish Pirate Party already made history a year ago by taking a seat (now two seats thanks to ratification of the Lisbon treaty) in the European Parliament. This month we'll see how they fare in the Swedish elections.

As far as I understand there is quite a realistic chance we'll see the PP achieving the 4% barrier to enter the Parliament. Swedish politics is also interesting because there is a strong division into left and right blocks, and there is a small chance of even a small new entrant of becoming a significant force if it can achieve a position where neither block without it has 50% of the seats. But, one step at a time, just entering the parliament is a good first step.

Rick Falkvinge is a very smart man and I would certainly hope for him to get a chance at entering the Parliament to present his case. This could be one of our biggest strikes back at the media industry on the one hand and bigbrotherly surveillance on the other: an actual seat in the very parliament where such abuse is blessed.

Since they are not an incumbent party, they are not invited to any of the televised debates. Even so, during last year's Euro election the Pirate Party's presence was already felt: I tuned in to a debate by accident only to hear the Greens and Left party arguing over who of them was more in favor of free copying for private use and other items from the PP agenda. (I haven't seen either of them actually take any such actions in parliament, but even talking about it in a debate is a good start :-)

And thankfully we have the internet so we can spread this video and others - it is in any case the most effective way to reach the PP demographic. Rick is the one partying in a lilac shirt.

So here's wishing good luck to Rick and crew, may the Autumn storms blow in your favor!