Pirate Party wins seats in second German state

The German Pirate Party has won four seats in Saarland, one of the smallest regions in Germany, described as a "conservative area." The PP campaigned on greater transparency in government. I'm speaking at the Pirate Party Congress in Prague on April 14, and I've been giving a lot of thought to the relevance of the party and the movement it represents. This is the second state-level German election that gave seats to the Pirates, and there are two Pirate MEPs in the European Parliament. Clearly, there's something bubbling in party politics and information politics.

Strong showing for the Pirate Party in German elections (via /.)

(Image: Piratenpartei Saarland Wahlprogramm)

• [Ipo]

  Ihr werdet euch noch wünschen wir wären Politikverdrossen.

  • [retepslluerb]

    For the non-German-speaking minority on this blog:

    This translates roughly “You’ll wish we were sulky about politics”.  “Politkverdrossenheit” being one of those short German words for complex topics  your teachers warned you about.

    The unofficial motto of the digital natives in their struggle against the Internetausdrucker, the ”I gotta have this on paper”-people, who do not grasp the concept of living electronic documents.

• [Cowicide]

  The German Green Party is friendly with The Pirate Party, no?

  • [mynameislove]

    It’s not that easy. The Green Party has a tradition of 22 years, mainly engaging in environmental issues like sustainability , consumer protection etc.

    I don’t know yet, what the Pirates really stand for.  I myself vote Green but I’m not sure about the Pirates… Will wait for their official agenda (if there will ever be one)

    and for the record: Saarland is the smallest of our federal states. You could see a trend…if anything. It doesn’t necessarily mean they will enter the Bundesregierung [German government]. Time will tell. I’m looking forward to the elections next year. At least there is another, fresh perspective with the Pirates and that is what pluralism means to me.

    • [Cowicide]

      I’m curious what you think of our political situation here in the USA compared to Germany right now.

      • [paulcarcosa]

        Lately there is a lot of talk about republican candidate pre elections, Romney this Santorum that.
        Since Dubya and Palin there’s some sort of sick fascination.

        American politics are often counter intuitive for Germans.

    • [Thiliel]

      Hey, what about Hamburg and Bremen? We’re federal states, too. ;) I organized a talk with chef pirates of Piratenpartei Hamburg and they were very convincing. Let’s hope the current ‘trend’ does not derail them.
      Btw, how does that rumour still hold up? Of course the Pirates have an agenda http://wiki.piratenpartei.de/wiki/images/0/04/Grundsatzprogramm-Piratenpartei.pdf

      • [mynameislove]

         Sorry… I didn’t want to shun Hamburg and Bremen! :)))

        Thanks for the link! I would alter my statement:
        I don’t know what they stand for besides the whole copyright issue. They’re all shiny and new and I will watch what they’re doing. I think it is interesting that we have them.

    • [Riko Mayer]

      “I don’t know what they stand for besides the whole copyright issue.2

      DID YOU EVEN READ THE LINK???

      • [mynameislove]

        unnecessary to scream at me. basic internet rules. thank you!

        Yes I did. But they haven’t proven themselves. They’ve won some elections, I get it. Do I have to be convinced they are the next best thing now? I don’t think so.

        After all they are politicians. And as soon as they will be in charge they will have to prove themselves. There are some good ideas,  but you could say the same thing about any political party. 

        Now all I can perceive is a trend, and they are riding the wave. Time will tell what will happen.

        I’m not anti-pirate at all. They just need to convince me. And it won’t happen by screaming at me, trust me. ;)

  • [paulcarcosa]

    Not really. Both parties are competing for the same clientele.

  • [retepslluerb]

    No. It’s a competitor. The Pirate party’s program overlaps with the following parties:

    Green – sustainability, energy, transparency . However, Greens are much more collectivist and have a strong history of technophobia and computer phobia.

    FDP – citizen rights, rule of law, liberalism (the real kind, not what US Republican say). However, the FDP is leaning to neo-liberalism, is weak on social security and cater’s to lobbyists. They also cede citizen rights issues to their big partner, when that gets them 1 percentage points from stuff like hotel tax rates.  

    Both parties lose voters and prospective voters to the pirates. 

    The pirates also hold some left viewpoints found at the SPD and Linke, but they aren’t bound by their ideology. 

• [LennStar]

  For more information try Falkvinge, there are also some interesting statistics about the vote.
  http://falkvinge.net/2012/03/25/pirate-party-wins-in-saarland-elections-enters-parliament/

  Very interesting: 25% from the first-time-voters, and 28% of pirate votes where people who did not vote the last time.

  • [mynameislove]

    a bit too much of  “We are ab fab!” for my taste, but still interesting.

• [mynameislove]

  http://www.morgenpost.de/politik/article106130128/Bei-den-Piraten-tut-sich-langsam-Zerrissenheit-auf.html

  interesting interview with a german political scientist Christoph Bieber (professor at Uni Duisburg-Essen), about the future of the Piratenpartei. Bieber has been watching them, since 2008.

  some main points:

  He claims that the Pirates might have to find their own position in the policy business, although some of their members think they won’t be needed anymore once the established political parties have adopted enough of their (the Pirates’) issues.

  He also observes an “unhealthy growth” within the party, with a lack of organisational structure.

  I don’t have the time to translate the whole article, maybe one of the other native speakers of German is willing to help?