Greens pledge to fill Pirates' shoes in EU win
Sweden's Green Party has earned its fourth seat in the European parliament after Max Andersson's triumph, who said he wants to fulfil some policies of the Pirate Party in Brussels.
On a dramatic night at the count office the Greens polled 572,591 votes while the Social Democrats clocked up 899,074. The Greens got an increase of 4.39 percentage points since the 2009 elections.
All of which means the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) doubled their number of MEPs, while the Social Democrats lost a seat to the environmentally friendly party. The Social Democrats now have five seats instead of the previous six.
Outspoken EU critic Max Andersson,40, landed the fourth seat for the Greens and told the Aftonbladet newspaper that it "felt wonderful".
Andersson said he had been glued to his computer following the results as they came in live via the official EU voting website.
"I want to sit in the environment committee and focus on climate change issues. I also want to fulfil the Pirate Party's empty shoes and work for a better IT policy," he said.
And in a word of warning to EU sceptics he said; "Then I would like to work to take some power back from the EU - it's an issue that must form public opinion for Sweden."
Meanwhile the Centre Party's leading candidate Kent Johansson lost his seat in the EU parliament.
It has been estimated that turnout for Sweden was approximately 51 percent. At the time of writing the official final results have yet to be published online with the EU website stating that "election results are yet to be determined."
The Local/pr
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On a dramatic night at the count office the Greens polled 572,591 votes while the Social Democrats clocked up 899,074. The Greens got an increase of 4.39 percentage points since the 2009 elections.
All of which means the Green Party (Miljöpartiet) doubled their number of MEPs, while the Social Democrats lost a seat to the environmentally friendly party. The Social Democrats now have five seats instead of the previous six.
Outspoken EU critic Max Andersson,40, landed the fourth seat for the Greens and told the Aftonbladet newspaper that it "felt wonderful".
Andersson said he had been glued to his computer following the results as they came in live via the official EU voting website.
"I want to sit in the environment committee and focus on climate change issues. I also want to fulfil the Pirate Party's empty shoes and work for a better IT policy," he said.
And in a word of warning to EU sceptics he said; "Then I would like to work to take some power back from the EU - it's an issue that must form public opinion for Sweden."
Meanwhile the Centre Party's leading candidate Kent Johansson lost his seat in the EU parliament.
It has been estimated that turnout for Sweden was approximately 51 percent. At the time of writing the official final results have yet to be published online with the EU website stating that "election results are yet to be determined."
The Local/pr
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