Swedish Pirates and nationalist True Finns emerge from nowhere

SCANDINAVIANS:SWEDEN'S PIRATE Party is heading to Brussels after coming from nowhere to take more than 7 per cent of the vote and a seat in the European Parliament.

The newcomer became the sensation of Sweden's European election with its campaign demands for greater privacy in online communication and a legalisation of file downloads.

"Privacy issues and civil liberties are important to people and they demonstrated that clearly when they voted," said Pirate Party candidate Anna Troberg.

Founded in 2006, the party attracted voters angered by new laws in Sweden that criminalised filesharing and authorised e-mail monitoring.

With just a year to go before Sweden's general election, the weekend poll was seen as a bellwether of voter support.

Sweden's Social Democrats, traditionally the strongest political force, were the clear winners. They polled 25.1 per cent to keep their five seats in the parliament.

Conservative prime minister Fredrik Reinfeld's Moderate Party was steady with 18.5 per cent. But analysts called his party's result, down from 26 per cent in the 2006 general election, a "cold shower" for Mr Reinfeld. Of his three coalition partners, only the Liberals posted gains, giving the centre-right a 42.6 per cent total vote, compared to 41.1 per cent for the left-wing opposition.

Sweden's Greens posted a strong rise in support, doubling their seat count to two, while the EU-critical Left Party lost its only seat after its support halved to just 5.6 per cent.

Eurosceptics made gains in neighbouring Finland, where the anti-immigrant nationalist PS (True Finns) increased its vote to 10 per cent from just 0.5 per cent five years ago, taking a seat in the new parliament.

Another winner of the election was the Green Party, which doubled its seat total to two.

The three main parties - the Social Democrats, Centre Party and National Coalition - lost one seat each. The ruling National Coalition dropped to 23.2 per cent, down from 23.7 per cent in 2004, while its Centre Party coalition partner lost two percentage points to win 21 per cent and three seats.

Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen accepted the second place position as a "defeat".

Turnout in Finland was 40.2 per cent, down slightly on 2004.