German Pirate Party poised to win first federal electoral contest

Germany's Pirate Party is kicking major electoral ass, holding 50 local elected offices across the country, and are now poised to win their first federal electoral contests:

“We are delighted that our demands for more transparency, participation and democracy for the people of Berlin are shared by the public. The Berlin people want change, and they recognize that a vote for the Pirate Party is not wasted,” Pirate Party’s Gerhard Anger said.

“With this poll result we are not in the state parliament yet. However, it is an important step in the right direction. We have to work hard in the next four weeks. In order to see the results of this poll reflected in actual votes on election day, we still have to keep on going,” Anger adds.

Previously the German Pirate Party already held a seat in the national parliament when Jörg Tauss left the Social Democrats to join the pirates. However, having people voted into parliament through an election would be an even bigger accomplishment.

German Pirate Party On Course to Election Win

(Image: Pirate party!, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from mapkyca's photostream)

• [Lalon Sander]

  Your article’s slightly misleading: The Pirate Party isn’t poised to win the election, but to make the minimum 5 percent necessary to enter parliament in Germany. If they do, they’ll have several seats, far from a majority.

  Also: These aren’t federal elections, but Berlin state elections.

  Bests from Berlin

  • [neapel]

    plus the only demographic where they (and even just barely) got over 5% were young male voters. In 2009, when they were still a bit hotter than now, they got 2%: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestagswahl_2009#Endg.C3.BCltiges_Gesamtergebnis_der_Bundestagswahl_2009 But since then, Jörg Tauss “left” (before they were compelled to kick him out) the party after being convicted of having bought child pornography in a demented attempt at research, and some minor scandals with failing to kick Nazi members out and a nasty debate about feminism straight from the 1950ies. Basically, there’s no chance they will ever get a better result than what they got in 2009, especially since the other parties have woken up now and offer some equally nice tech policies (which is the Pirates’ success, although indirect)

• [wobinidan]

  They’re getting my vote because of their excellent poster campaign that actually outlines their policies (separation of church and state and a minimum wage, for example).

  All of the mainstream parties just have a corny image of a big untrustworthy face above a name and a nonsensical slogan like “understanding Berlin”.   I’ve never voted before and it might seem a little odd or perhaps unfair to some people that I am going to make a political decision based on posters in a language that I don’t understand 100%.   But who cares?  Ignorant people vote all the time.   And anything that might shake up the status quo a bit is worth a shot.

• [MrEricSir]

  I was going to suggest calling this the “Fourth Reich,” but I think the “Copy Reich” would be a better name.

  • [CountZero]

    *Groan*

• [Jens Reuterberg]

  Personally my only problem with the PP is that they lack an actuall political platform. If they where a one question party, whose interest was only in this specific little subject that would be grand but their not. They have taken political stands for everything from laissez faire economics and social work to infosocialism in statements but since they lack a broader platform they simply don’t follow up. This would be cool too if they had a system of “vote for the person in the party you like best” or something but sadly that too is kinda flopping about.

  I like them, I do, but in that kinda “thats adorable” way, sadly.

• [Mick Hamblen]

  Want one of those flags. Wanna put it next to a Mugiwara flag

• [Kebie]

  Was walking early in the morning from one club to another by the spree by Jannowitzbruke and I totally saw someone slashing down giant pirate party signs that were on the meridian. I was mostly confused cause I didn’t know the party was big enough to really have that much an impact and why would someone be ripping down their signs. I been pretty mad no one was ripping down the super right wing racist signs all over Berlin.

  Totally wasn’t a hero and didn’t say anything, not my federal election or place to get into it with someone (wasted on my bday).