Pirate Party Rep. Becomes Youngest Ever Member Of European Parliament

Posted by JacobSloan on December 5, 2011

TorrentFreak talks to Amelia Andersdotter of Sweden’s fantastic Pirate Party. If only they had a U.S. presence:

In a few weeks Amelia Andersdotter will be the second Pirate Party member to take a seat at the European Parliament in Brussels. The 24-year-old Swede was voted in more than two years ago, but due to bureaucratic quibbles her official appointment was delayed.

When elected Andersdotter was only 21, but the now 24-year-old will still be the youngest member to hold a seat in the current parliament.

For the remainder of her term as MEP, which end in 2014, Andersdotter will focus on issues like competition in the telecommunication area. “European approaches to competition law need to be changed, at least a bit. Better sector adaptation, for instance. The lack of real control over vertical integration creates the situation where telcos (or media enterprises) own everything from the backbone cables to the music streaming service – that’s not good. One would at least expect some obligation to keep the different tiers apart,” Andersdotter says.

Aside from defending the public from unfair competition, the future Member of Parliament will also tackle the various rights issues that are so dear to the Pirate Party.

“I’m also very interested in industrial rights, like, patent rights or design rights, trademarks. There’s an abundance of kind of side-initiatives, data exclusivity in the pharmaceutical industry being a good example, that also reinforce the ‘non-material’ economic position of companies in a way that is not always good for society,” she says.

“It’s important for the PP to be represented everywhere, I guess. One of my hopes for the future is that the PP will be represented in all the national parliaments of member states so that we can hold member states kind of accountable more for what happens in the EU.”

Posted in: European Union, Piracy, Pirate Party, Politics, Sweden

Anonymous

I fully support the pirate party; and shes kinda cute
Anarchy Pony

Finally pirates are getting the representation they deserve.
YaBOOYYYY

SEXY
DeepCough

Nice to know SOME parts of the world are making progress.
Jin (仁)

in a scandi viking hacker maiden sort of way, i concur.
Anarchy Pony

Yeah, but she’s no Lizbeth Salander.
Anonymous

Wow we need more hotties in government, she would get my vote!
Mr Willow

Yet another way foreign politics shames ours (in the US): Electing young, attractive, third party candidates.

Go pirates!
Jin (仁)

lol how did you know that was the standard to which i was referring?
Anarchy Pony

Intuition.
Suddenly Spam!

Fucking liberals. Its not politics unless someone is threatening war over some minor infraction.
Butter Knife

The youngest ever member of European is finally seated, gives a speech in which she makes several extremely cogent and fairly reasonable statements of position on which she intends to do serious work to improve society… and the best Disinfo can come up with is noting that she’s cute?

Really guys?

I’m genuinely disappointed.

That said… I would so hit that.
Suddenly Spam!

She is too mousy looking. She looks to be around 5′3 and I prefer my women 5′11 at the shortest.
Anonymous

What’s wrong with mousy looking? Cute girls are the most playfull
http://twitter.com/grahamatical grahamatical

Are you planning on raping women? Your statement sounds nuts but I hope you’re simply being sarcastic.

Here’s one for you; rapists can’t rape you if they’re dead.
http://twitter.com/grahamatical grahamatical

Dudes, focus. Why are looks always called into play when a woman is in a male dominated field — any field at all. Ugh, and you’re supposed to be the high minded types.
http://twitter.com/MiGaOh Michael G. O’Hair

Entertainment should be free!
Actors, musicians, and artists should go broke and starve!
….
Wait a minute, not sure if I could get behind that idea…
Also, bork bork bork bork bork bork bork bork.
Jin (仁)

spam is a smart ass, and oftentimes hilarious. those that read the boards regularly are de sensitised to any offense he may cause.

no one on this board is advocating sexual violence.
Jin (仁)

i think it was perfectly contextual to discuss the point of her attractiveness- given that she is young and most posters are varying degrees of young, when we in the occupied lands of turtle island have a mostly entrenched senior citizen political demographic featuring mostly crazy white men, which does not offer a broad appeal to those who are not bonafide geriaphiles…
Mr Willow

My thoughts exactly.

(wait. . . we’re still talking about this?)
ghey

why don’t you just date a man already?
Hadrian999

schaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-wing
Anonymous

unless it is between consenting adults
Hadrian999

is your girlfriend reading over your shoulder?
http://voxmagi-necessarywords.blogspot.com/ VoxMagi

Dude…are you blind? Srsly…there are moments when we can all lay aside politics for a second and notice something else.

She’s freaking adorable!

And I’m gay! Believe me…if I notice that she’s cute before reading the article…she’s cute!

(side note: very happy to see someone who is A) young B) smart and C) non-traditional in political alignment make the grade and win a place in serious politics. I consider it a win on all fronts. And then there’s the fact that she’s quite probably the most attractive person I’ve ever seen win political office…which is nice because of its incredible rarity, but largely irrelevant.)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jamie-Cox/100001157042213 Jamie Cox

Studies show that looks play a large part in politics… and smart+responsible+hot is a boon.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jamie-Cox/100001157042213 Jamie Cox

This is generally NOT what happens in the real world… It’s the record companies that are hurt.
Anonymous

Orgone projection is a poweful form of political support.
Anonymous

And attractiveness would have absolutely been relevant if it was a young man that was elected, right? The disinfo community is consistently misogynistic, which is disappointing, considering this is supposed to be a forum for thinking outside the oppresive conventions of mainstream society. It’s especially interesting to see the extent to which people refuse to take responsibility for sexism and male privilege, and excuse it with various philosophy/poltical/intellectual arguments. What a completely new idea. Everyone here is so progressive.
Anonymous

…you don’t know Jin very well do you?
Anarchy Pony

Probably not.
E.B. Wolf

Giggety…(twitch)…g-g-g-g-giggety…
Jin (仁)

Anon,

firstly let me say, you are COMPLETELY correct in your assessment of some disinfo posters. Many articles, many instances. I am not going to defend them, nor am i going to pretend it does not happen frequently. However, I am both queer, radical and a feminist. “Attractiveness” has nothing to do with gender, or with sexuality- as i am sure you are aware. I am also very aware of the fact that i have posted NUMEROUS articles PERSONALLY regarding feminism (several from Bitch,several from colorlines) and in the discussion that ensued where were you? I have also at length got into VERY heated discussions regarding misogyny on the boards with long time posters, on OTHER articles people have posted regarding gender oppression- again where were you? I am sure it is nice to be able to single ME out, when i did not in any way deserve it- as i without qualification a very vocal supporter of radical feminsim, queer politics, and generally radical feminsim. Male privilege is an UNNACCEPTABLE feature of our society, just as white privilege is- especially in the context of discussion- without first acknowledging your privilege as is customary in radical politics. I also would like to know where you have been in context to discussions of race and oppression- of which even many posters who views on gender and sexuality are MORE regressive come out to vocally support. radical politics as i am SURE you know have at their core, solidarity principles- wherein we try to examine all facets of oppression whether race, gender, class, or other. Has the fact some disinfo posters, who otherwise have progressive opinions, are misogynists or apologists for the patriarchial institutions of western society caused me distress? yes. very much so. but in order to move beyond those things, discussion is nessecery. I suspect you are using an Anon name, but are probably a frequent poster or reader, and i have no problem with that, But it IS problmematic if a dialogue cannot be started between different posters on issues of gender. We should have solidarity with eachother, and it is unhelpful to direct posts to me- whom IS very aware of the historical relationship between oppression and gender.
Hadrian999

it’s too bad that the winner take all structure of american assemblies prevent such a symbolic victory from happening here
Jin (仁)

vox, man that was what i am saying!!!! she’s not only adorable, she’s smart, her politics are pretty non traditional, and she’s young and she looks like the people who are becoming disillusioned with politics (young women, young)- it’s exactly what is needed!
Anonymous

Thank you for your thoughtful and articulate comment. You have given me a new faith in the intelligence and humanity of internet commenters. For what it’s worth, I sincerely apoligize for directing at you what should have been said to the general community – while I read disinfo regularly, I don’t partcipate in or pay much attention to comments because I’m often frustrated by sexism and homophobia. I also have had the impression that what should be an excellent medium for public discourse on important topics is often sabotaged by pointless arguing, obnoxiousness, and general bullshit (not this site, specifically, but the world at large). So again, I appreciate being proven wrong, am consoled in finding that I am not alone in being frustrated, and have a new level of respect for this community, and you in particular. Rock on.

Pirate Party Rep. Becomes Youngest Ever Member Of European Parliament

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