"a new initiative promoted by the italian association for free software for the next italian political elections (provided that they will actually take place…). the initiative consists in asking the candidates to sign a letter where they engage themselves, in case they will be elected, to promote the use of free software through their political activity.

The Italian Constitutional Court just published its decision: two articles of a 2009 Italian regional law that promotes Free Software and open digital standards violate the Italian Constitution. It will be VERY interesting now to find how many other local laws (both in Italy and in OTHER countries) have similar problems...

The fourth Italian Free Software Conference will take place in Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy) on June 11-12th. The main language of the conference is Italian.

"...Sarnez, a member of the European Parliament since 1999, is currently campaigning to be re-elected to the European Parliament. She has recently pledged her support for free software, after being approached by the Free Software advocacy associations April in France and the Associazione per il software libero in Italy.

"Welcome to the Free Software Pact Initiative! Free Software advocacy associations April [...] and "Associazione per il software libero" (Italy) have launched a joint campaign aimed at the European Parliament elections in early June 2009. The campaign invites citizens to ask candidates to sign the "Free Software Pact".

Because of the German federal elections in 2009, FSFE called on all German Free Software supporters to ask the parties’ candidates about their positions on Free Software and Open Standards. FSFE set up a page about the German Bundestagswahl to help asking questions, and to collecting answers.

"The upcoming European parliament elections give the free software movement an opportunity to educate the candidates to the importance of protecting free software from bad legislation involving software patents, interoperability and net neutrality. The French free software association April has organized the Free Software Pact initiative, but they need your help.

"Free Software advocacy associations April (France/Belgium) and Associazione per il software libero (Italy) have launched a joint campaign aimed at the European Parliament elections in early June. The campaign invites citizens to ask candidates to sign the Free Software Pact..."

Gnome Foundation elections are getting near, and the candidacies have already been submitted to the mailing list. Here’s an overview of the candidates, along with the copy paste of their candidacy mail.