When a new party with a focus on data civil rights entered the state Parliament of Berlin after elections last Sunday, many were surprised—not least the party itself.
The German Pirate Party was founded in 2006 and named as a play on the term used by the music and film industry for illegally sharing copyright protected titles.
Pirates, as they call themselves, believe existing copyright and patent laws hurt users to protect the interests of large corporations. The party believes reforming these laws would benefit society.
The Pirate Party stresses protecting personal data from any privacy intrusions as a foundation of a free and democratic society. It also stands for free access to public information and direct grass-roots democracy.
“Newly created technical possibilities should be used to create a transparent state that serves the people. They must not be misused to create a transparent citizen who has been limited in his or her human rights,” states the Pirate's website.
Henning Bartels, a freelance author who wrote a book on the party, portrays it as a “civil-rights party with digital competence.”
In Berlin, the party entered its first state Parliament in Germany by taking nearly 9 percent of the vote while, easily crossing the necessary threshold of 5 percent.
During its first press conference, recorded by Phoenix TV, after the election victory, the main candidate gladly stated “we filled a vacuum since the other offers were so bad.”
At the conference, the Pirates promised to make real with public transparency—one of its cherished values—by keeping a blog where the freshly elected members will document their “learning process.” They also promised to be open to input by voters.
“We have the questions. You have the answers,” was one of its election slogans.
Bartels explains the success of the party in Berlin as a great need for alternatives that other parties could not provide. He is cautious to speculate on a repeat at the federal level in Germany or in other countries since the “electorate has a very different composition in Berlin.”
The election pollster Infratest dimap observed that most voters were younger than the age of 34 and male; a majority expressed the opinion that the Party gives young people and former nonvoters a voice.
The Pirate Party first came to public recognition after it took 2 percent in the federal elections of 2009, the highest vote achieved by any party not entering Parliament. During that year its membership increased tenfold.
The Pirates' success in Berlin reflects a bigger trend in recent decades in Germany. The so-called “people's parties,” the Social Democrats and the Christian Democratic Union that intend to appeal to large segments of society, have declined in members and votes. Instead, parties like the Greens and the Left that cater to more specific populations, have established themselves. In some states, these newer parties have even gained more votes than the traditional parties.
