Pirates Makes Landfall on German Political Scene

The big surprise in Berlin’s recent parliamentary elections were the results for the so-called “Pirate” party. They reeled in an impressive 8.9% at the polls on Sunday. This has stunned Berlin’s political elite and pundits.

Established parties in Berlin such as the Die Linke (The Left) seem to have walked the plank as the Pirate Party looks to move into Berlin’s house of representatives for the first time in its young history. While it is tempting to continue with the pirate jokes and metaphors, it is vital to outline the roots and history of this young German party.

The party takes its name from the original Swedish Pirate Party. The Swedish party was born in 2006 and saw predominately tech-savy males come together as a political movement in their battle to reform copyright laws and push for more liberal laws concerning data sharing. Furthermore the Pirate faction has been amongst the keenest supporters of state transparency. It comes as no surprise that fellow Pirate parties have been forthcoming and supportive towards WikiLeaks and its initiative, supplying server space in times of trouble.

The German branch was first founded in 2006 and took part in its first regional elections in 2008 in Hessen, scraping together a mere 0.3% of the vote. In the following year the party obtained 2.0% in the federal elections, primarily thanks to young voters from university towns such as Jena and Ilmenau.

Sunday’s election result was so unexpected that the Pirates now seem to have reached their zenith: all of the 15 candidates on their list are moving in as new “Pirate” legislators into Berlin’s house of representatives.

Apart from personal constraints the party faces another hurdle, gender. Only one out of the 15 new legislators is female, which furthers fuels the stereotype of the Pirates being a party of “nerds” and “geeks” who are generally apolitical but very opinionated when it comes to Internet rights and privacy concerns. This “geek” stereotype was further confirmed as the Pirate Party legislators lined up recently for a photo-op in front of Berlin’s house of representatives in hooded sweatshirts and Captain America t-shirts.

Many are sceptical whether the Pirate Party programme has any future since it entails rather utopian ideas such as the abolition of copyright law. It remains to be seen if the Pirate Party will throw its programme over board and take on a more thorough and inclusive approach to politics or whether it will play the classical role as an opposition party.

General voter dissatisfaction is certainly one reason which has led to the Pirates rise. The left-leaning, open-access and equality platform certainly was appealing to many frustrated comrades of Berlin's Left Party who are fed up of the internal brawls within Germany’s Linke. The cosmopolitan atmosphere of Berlin is also less resilient to political experiments than rural Germany.

Ultimately time will show whether the Pirates will be able to master the rough sea that is everyday politics.