In the 2009 Swedish European Parliament election, the Pirate Party gained 7.1 per cent of the votes. We evaluate the sudden and unexpected success of the Pirate Party by testing two competing explanations: did voters cast their votes for the party as a protest against the established parties, or can the result be explained by voters' opinions regarding the party's main political issues? Contrary to popular beliefs, empirical evidence indicates that the success of the Pirate Party cannot be explained with reference to protest voting. Rather, the most important reason why individuals voted for the Pirate Party was the importance they ascribed to the party's main political issues.
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