[pp.int.general] Political Party X

[Anton Tamminen]

Eduardo Robles Elvira wrote:
> El Domingo 29 Junio 2008, "Mårten Fjällstr"öm escribió:
>   
>> In the European Parliament, it is the party groups that are the key to  
>> getting influence. Once elected, we will discuss with the groups that  
>> could be of interest, to determine which group is closest to us, and join  
>> that group.
>>
>> Inside the group, we will do our utmost to persuade the other members of  
>> the group to join our position on the issues that fall within our  
>> political platform. In return, we´ll listen to the advice of the group on  
>> all other issues, and vote with the group unless we have some strong  
>> reasons not to.
>>     
>
> I for one say a strong NO to that way of doing politics. So we are a Pirate 
> Party, but then we are not anymore independent because we join THAT group. c
>
> Then, in that group the idea of the *declaration* you just try to convince 
> them for our positions (please, please, please), but in return we'll vote 
> with the group "unless we have some strong reason not to".
>
> This seems pretty broken. That's *not* the way things should be done at all. 
> First, it's against our pirate party statutes. But it's worst than that. To 
> me, this seems like the one who wrote the *Uppsala declaration* - or at least 
> that part of it - has a clear political agenda. 
>
> That agenda seems pretty clear: gain momentum, get a seat in the european 
> parliament, convert the Pirate Party in part of the political party X (could 
> you just tell us what party is it already?), and end up being swallowed by 
> that party. Because you know, people don't like to vote the substitute, but 
> the original party X.
>
> So summing up, pirate party seems to be just the trampoline	 for entering 
> the "Political Party X".
>
> Regards,
>        Eduardo Robles Elvira.
>   
Like I stated earlier, the document is not an absolute statement, and 
the part about being part of a group is to me merely a proposition to be 
considered. There was some debate about this in the conference as well, 
and the issue was left pretty open. Don't let the document give you the 
impression that any decisions have been made - I think we all realize 
the importance of consensus here.

Still, as a side note, it should be mentioned that it can be very hard 
to accomplish anything in the EP outside a group.

-- 
Anton Tamminen
International Secretary, Member of the Board
Piraattipuolue - The Pirate Party, Finland
http://www.piraattipuolue.fi