The Swedish Young Pirates had their annual member congress in April, where they elected a new board. They also expanded their political program into new  areas such as immigration, marriage rights, voting age and environment to mention a few.

The congress took place on the first weekend of April where around 50 elected member representatives decided the future directions of the Swedish Young Pirates just one year from the big election year. In 2014 Sweden will see both the elections to the European Union as well as elections to the regional and national parliaments. Both the Swedish Pirate Party and its youth organisation Young Pirates now focus on finalising their broadened political programs.

The congress electeded their new board fairly smoothly, re-electing Gustav Nipe for his third year of presidency and Mikael Holm for his second year as secretary. The other elected members are Niklas Dahl, Louise Anjou, Simeon Jonasson, Jimmie Karlsson, Elin Andersson, Nicholas Miles and Wanja Jatko, with three alternate members – David Midhage, Lucas Persson and Erik Einarsson.

The Swedish Pirate Party’s views on immigration have become more positive with the expansion of their political agenda, and the Young Pirates have now voted for a clearer and more direct opinion in the matter. The Young Pirates want to “make mass immigration a goal in Swedish immigration politics“, to be achieved by vastly changing the current system.

Sweden has recently seen a large rise in anti-immigration politics, mainly through the Swedish Democrats, a party elected to government in 2010 and currently holding around 10 % in polls. After the decision of mass immigration was approved, the hashtag used for the congress (#upk13) started trending in Sweden, with some outsiders cheering on the pirates and others lambasting them.

The congress also voted to be in favour of the forming of a Nordic federal state with an elected chief of state, referencing studies showing that 42 % of Nordic people support such a formation and arguing that the cultural similarities would allow for a strong union.

The congress further voted to lower the voting age from 18 to 15, and to make marital law more flexible, allowing for polyamorous relationships. These decisions continue the trend of the Young Pirates going further than the party itself, being more extreme in some questions whilst PPSE is more conservative and careful. The leader of the Swedish Pirate Party, Anna Troberg, visited the congress to give a talk wherein she expressed support for the initiative and asked the youth organisation to continue to never be afraid of going further than the party.

All images by Christopher Hakulinen, approved to use on Pirate Times.

About Anton Nordenfur

I’m party organiser for the Swedish Pirate Party, and work as a freelancing writer and translator. I’m primarily interested in research politics and LGBTQ rights, and blog in Swedish over at antonnordenfur.com.

 

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The Swedish Young Pirates had their annual member congress in April, where they elected a new board. They also expanded their political program into new  areas such as immigration, marriage…